My Missed Chance
by Jupiter'Cobalt
Summary: Len's having regrets about how his life's going. Specifically, how he missed his shot with Rin. But even with friends there for comfort and school to distract him, will he be able to move on with his life? Sequel to Big Brother, Little Sister.
1. Chapter 1: The Week After

Gah. There's no room in the story summary to put everything that I wanted while at the same time adding the note that it's the sequel to 'Big Brother, Little Sister.' Sometimes that character limit really gets on my nerves.

Anyway…

Welcome to chapter one of 'My Missed Chance,' the sequel story to the 16 chapter long semi-recently finished 'Big Brother, Little Sister,' a tale of love, of angst, incest and of drama.

Apparently.

Anyway, to the readers of BBLS that are worried a sequel might ruin the (spoiler alert) happy ending… Trust me. I really wouldn't be writing this if I thought it would mess up that warm fuzzy feeling. I'm trying my absolute best to keep this in such a way that we don't touch much on the present-day activities of Rin and Kaito. They'll have to be mentioned, obviously; they _were_ the stars of the show last time around. But there's a new POV and a new cast. So boys and girls… Well, in all honesty, it's mostly girls. Please enjoy the chapter and the story that follows. If you just wandered in here and think that you're interested, then I recommend you jump over to my profile real quick, set aside an extra half-hour and read through all of 'Big Brother, Little Sister' before continuing. I'll try to make it so that if, for whatever reason, you want to read this without having to even look at BBLS, you'd be able to. Kinda. But for the sake of simplicity, for the most part I'm going to be writing under the assumption that readers here know the backstory. Especially beyond chapters one and two.

Alright, reading the wall-of-text out of the way, there's only one thing left for you to do:

Enjoy.

**My Missed Chance**

She was sitting on the other side of the cafeteria, chatting happily with her group of friends and laughing at the jokes they each were making. From where he was sitting, alone and a fair distance away, Len couldn't hear a word she was saying. But if he had to make a guess, he'd probably be in the ballpark.

People were finally starting to talk openly about what happened to Miku on her 'date' with Kaito. But only after news reached the school that her family had moved. While Len scoffed that the spoiled brat had gotten her family to _move_ just because her revenge plan backfired, former friends, long-time enemies, and every other kid on the block were laughing it up about how Miku got a bit of water splashed on her. Len didn't see what the big deal was. It was only water. It's not like she was wearing white or anything.

Rin was likely talking about it all too; probably leaving out the detail that she was there to see it, though. Even if she wasn't, it wouldn't do much for her. Miku still had a few friends around here, and while the blue-haired mistress might not know for sure that it was Rin's doing she got so flustered, if word got around that it was, well… Miku had dirt on everybody. Everyone knew it. And she didn't have to be here to spread word. It was how she tried to replace Kaito on the social ladder when he graduated; find out as much as you can about everybody you know and hold them for ransom until they bow down to your feet. Yeah. Note the 'tried.' One wonders how she had real friends to begin with, if blackmail was her standard default to every situation.

Len sighed and slumped into the hand holding his head up as his elbow rested on the table. He knew exactly what it was that Miku had on him. She used it to call in a favor once or twice, and while it cost him a few friends here and there, to him it all worked out. He wondered what it was that she had on Rin.

Actually. No. He didn't wonder. He probably had a fairly good idea about what that was, too.

A familiar voice came up from behind him. "Hey, Len," the golden-haired Neru said friendlily as she sat down next to him. "Why so sad looking?"

Of the few people that Len surrounded himself with- or rather, that would actually want to actually be around him still- Neru was one of the even fewer that he would call a friend. She talked to him outside of school, they went places together, he'd been to her house once or twice… They weren't together _too_ often, but they were seen in public enough times for a small rumor to form that they were actually dating.

Len quickly put a stop to that rumor.

"Mm…" he said in response to her question."No reason."

"No reason?" She tried to follow his eyes as he stared off bored in Rin's direction, but lost which way he was looking in the crowds of people hanging around that area. "…Well, aren't you talkative today."

"Mm."

She spotted the smirk he hid and shoved him playfully. "Baka… Oh, hey," she said, "You heard about Miku, right? About what happened to her?"

'Heard?' he thought, gaze back on the crowd Rin was in. 'I freaking drove the girl who did it to her down there.' He said, eyes unchanging, "Me and everyone else in town. Why?"

"Well, you know how she was with Kaito, right? The graduate? And how the waitress came by while they were eating and spilled, like, three gallons of water on her clothes?"

'I just said I knew about it, but sure, go on telling me.' Len thought with an internal sigh. 'And it was more like three glasses. Way to exaggerate.' He nodded.

"Well, _I_ heard that the waitress spilling water on her wasn't an accident; that someone had told her to walk by them and drop it on purpose."

"You don't say."

"Yeah!" she said, completely missing the sarcasm in his voice. "A few of the guys said that she was talking to someone before she did it."

Len raised an eyebrow and glanced at her. Had someone seen Rin after all? If they did, could they have spotted him, too?

He returned his eyes to where they were. Even if they did, it wouldn't matter. What's the worst they could say? That Kaito needs his little sister to protect him? Even if there still _were_ people who hated him enough to do that (Miku was the only one), it wasn't Len's problem. Worst that he'd have to deal with was a rumor that he and _Rin_ were dating.

He'd probably let that one fester a bit.

He asked her, "Did they see who it was the waitress was talking to?"

Neru shook her head. "No, apparently there was something in the way. But they think it was someone from this school."

He didn't look at her. "And why's that?"

"Well, half the school was down there watching. And who else would have gotten involved?" She took out her cell phone- a risky thing to do during the middle of a school that took them- to text God knows who as she talked. "It was probably someone with a grudge against Miku. After sophomore year, she turned into a bit of a bitch." She never looked up from the phone's screen. "I don't know… What do you think?"

"About what. If it was someone who didn't like Miku or if I think that Miku's a bitch?"

She laughed, and shoved him friendlily. He chuckled a bit himself. They looked at each other, now.

"I meant if you think that it was someone who didn't like Miku who told the waitress to spill the water on her or not."

Len slowly turned to look back at Rin, who was still laughing with her friends. Still having a good time without him.

His heart started to ache. But he ignored it.

"…Yeah. Yeah, I think it was."

"Makes you wonder who had the guts to do it, though." She was texting again. "They must have really wanted Kaito to be spared from Miku's rath if they'd risk getting caught like that."

Len gulped as she talked.

"Might have been a secret admirer."

He shivered.

"What do you think, Len?"

"…Yeah." He said again, looking at Rin. "I think it was."


	2. Chapter 2: Classroom

Ah… It feels good to be in this plotline again. Here's chapter two; because I'm in the writing mood today. Three's being worked on. And maybe it'll be up later today, too.

EDIT: Or not. So it wasn't up that day or that day's tomorrow. But I'll have it up soon. I've just been caught up lately with other writing.

**My Missed Chance – Chapter Two**

The bell rings. Neru quickly stashes her phone away and stands up with Len. "Well," she says, "I guess I'll talk to you later." She starts to walk off and flashes him a quick wave. "See you!"

He lifts his hand and half-heartedly waves back. When his hand falls back down, he glances over to where Rin was sitting. To his disappointment, both Rin and the group she was sitting with were gone.

'What would I have even said to her?' Len thought as he walked to his next class. ''Hey, I know you're kind of in love with your brother and I'm kind of a dick wad and all, but would you mind stopping everything and giving me a chance?' Bah…' He picked up the pace of his walk. 'Life doesn't work that way. Not in reality; and not for me.' He scoffed audibly. 'I'd just end up losing another friend. If I haven't lost her already.'

Practically storming into the classroom, he sat down in his chair before most anyone else had even arrived yet. He was alone in the room. Except for the teacher.

She looked up, brushing away the pink hair that was in front of her eyes. Her hair was down; Len guessed that she had finally caught on to the lack of police dogs hounding every student that dressed like a whore. "Bad day?" Megurine Luka asked him.

He stared angrily at the wall, arms crossed. "No. Why."

Luka paused and shrugged. "No reason."

After a few awkward-silence moments, she sighed. "…You know, Len, I'm not sure what it is about you, but whenever you enter a room these days, you seem to kill any joy that once was." Len didn't flinch. "Thoughts on sharing why _you_ think that is?"

His voice was still flat. "Just because I kill your happiness grading papers doesn't mean I regret the murder afterwards. Besides," he looked at her with just his eyes. "It's really none of your business."

"Seeing as you came into _my_ room, hate in tow, I feel the need to disagree." They had a mini staring contest which she lost after several seconds and the entry of another student into the classroom. "…Right. Well, whenever you're ready to talk about it, I'm not going anywhere."

The green haired newcomer looked at the two of them, then made a semi-accurate assumption. "Len, you're having relationship trouble, or something?"

Len hid his groan. Apparently, Luka's reputation for being a love-therapist got around to more people than he thought. Wonder how she found out…?

The girl sat down in the seat next to his. "I remember Luka helping me get the courage to ask someone out last year. She's good for that sort of thing."

Ah. That's how.

"Listen, Gumi, I'm sure that your opinion of Ms. M. is fairly high after she got you your first date, but this really isn't something I think she can help with."

Gumi shrugged, sorting out her books. "You'd be surprised."

Len glanced at her, then resumed eyeing the wall. "Yes, actually, I would be."

"Never know unless you ask for help."

"I'm sure if you knew the scale of the situation you'd be rephrasing that."

"Well," Luka said, standing up, "Why don't you share with the class?" She reached the side of his desk. "We're all ears."

Len first looked at Luka, then Gumi then back to Luka again. "…What the… What is this, an intervention?"

"Depends." Luka said. "Are you an alcoholic, too?"

"Gah!" He stood up. Gumi was giggling.

"You know," she said looking up to him as he took a few steps back, "People've tried to keep things like this to themselves. But it's really up to Luka if she's going to get involved with your problems or not. Believe me; I've tried what you're doing. It doesn't work."

"Speaking of work," Luka looked over at Gumi, "I assume you finished page fifty-three last night?"

"Erm…" She shifted in her seat a little. "…Maybe…"

"Aah…" Luka went over to her desk again. "You see, it's this sort of thing that's the reason you're failing my class. You can work as hard as you can during school, but unless you get the homework done, you're going to keep struggling with that D."

"Sorry, Luka…" Gumi went back to taking out her supplies.

"Mm." Luka sat down. "So anyway," she looked at Len again, "Anything you want to add to the conversation?"

Len, still standing, looked at her. "…Is _everyone_ in this school on a first-name basis with you, now?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

Len sighed and sat down as the late bell rang. "Oh, just start the class already."

And when all the people hanging around in the hallway rushed in during the last few rings, she did just that. Albeit giving Len the occasional glance while up at the board teaching math to the rest of them. He didn't answer any questions that day.


	3. Chapter 3: Drive Home

So. How many of you were thinking that if I wrote a sequel it would be from the point of view of Rin or Kaito, like last time? Oh, come on, don't try and hide it. I could practically feel the fear that I'd ruin it all, right through my computer screen.

Honestly. I thought you knew me better than that. I'd _never_ ruin a plotline by taking it where it doesn't need to go.

…

Besides, I had a few plot points I wanted to tie up. And it's always fun writing from the perspective of a formerly-background character.

Anyway.

By the way, 'Queen Bee' (mentioned in the chapter below) is not a Vocaloid song. But I think it fits where I put it, and it helps keep me from breaking the fourth wall with, like, a song by Miku, or something.

Heh, that would be interesting, wouldn't it? 'World is Mine' starts playing and everyone just kinda stops and goes, "Hey… Is that Miku on the radio?"

But no, that isn't going to happen. So don't get any ideas.

…

Moving on. This chapter is a bit longer than the others; maybe that makes up for the almost week-long silence this had in between updates. Enjoy.

**My Missed Chance – Chapter Three**

Gumi set a folded piece of paper on Len's desk as Luka was facing the blackboard, writing out several problems for the class to do that day. She didn't look at him while she set it there, and quickly got back to work. It was actually an excellent example of how passing notes _should_ be done. But Len wanted nothing to do with it. He brushed it off onto the floor.

Gumi responded by picking it up and trying again.

He sighed and opened it.

'_So who is it?'_ was all she had written inside. A sad waste of paper, because God knows he wasn't going to write something back.

Until she placed the pen she used on his desk as well.

He eyed her. She wasn't even cracking a smile.

Girl was a professional.

Reluctantly, he uncapped the pen and wrote a response.

'_It's none of your business. Don't worry about it.'_

He tossed the note back onto her desk and she looked at it. After she read it, she scribbled a few things down onto the note under what he wrote and placed it folded neatly back on his.

He opened it.

'_Oh, come ooooon, you can tell me. I'm not going to tell anyone. Promise. ;p'_

'Oh, good lord, she writes in smiley faces,' Len thought. He wrote down,

'_That's not what I'm worried about. What I'm worried about is some crazy girl wanting to talk to me about things that really aren't any of her business all the time. Like this.'_

After the exchange of pen and paper, Len read the note when she handed it back to him.

'_Ooo, the great and stoic Len is worried. haha. Or did you mean embarrassed?'_

'_No. I'm not worried about any girl finding out that I like her; even if she did, I'd deal with it. I'm worried that situations like this will happen where people try to get involved when they don't need to.'_ He thinks for a moment. _'Which I just told you.'_

'…_aw… But I wanna know.'_

'_Too bad.'_

She gave him a look that would break better men then he with its cute-sadness. But Len didn't have a reputation for being a stoic poker-face for nothing. He didn't let it get to him.

In spite of his stubbornness, Gumi wasn't going to give up- she'd lost this time, but her curiosity would often border on obsession. She'd find out. One way or another.

But Len paid her no mind, and got back to pretending to listen to Luka as she scribbled seemingly random symbols he'd never seen before in his life on the board. Gumi wasn't the only one failing her course…

Later, after school was out for the day, Len was in the parking lot, walking towards his car- a yellow Mercedes with, as a recent addition, a black letter 'L' in the font style of Death Note on its roof. His key ring had a similar add-on; a stylized black letter 'L' hanging as a key chain. As he raised it up to unlock his car remotely, he heard swift footsteps coming up from behind him. He turned around…

"Oof!"

And was promptly tackled by a rushing Neru. "Oh, God; Len are you okay?"

She was on top of him after barreling into him in a mad dash from the school. Whether or not it was an accident or on purpose was up for debate. Her face was only a few inches from Len's when their eyes met after impact. He was complaining in his mind about the pain in his back from collapsing on the pavement- at least she had him to land on.

"Yeah… Yeah, Neru, I'm fine." She rose and helped him up. When he was back on his feet, his hand fell on her shoulder for balance. "In a rush to get somewhere?"

She nodded as both of his hands fell back to his side. "Yeah, I was hoping to catch you before you left."

"Why; do you need a ride again?"

She nodded once more. "I missed the bus staying behind in class."

"Again? How much extra credit do you need?" He turned to walk towards his car. "I know that Luka's class is hard and all, but Jesus. What is this; fifth time this month?"

"Y-Yeah…" She skipped a bit to catch up to him when he waved for her to follow. "Well, I don't want to fail, so…" She walked holding her hands behind her back; Len with his in his pockets. When they passed his car keys- which had skidded a few feet away when she crashed into him, getting knocked out of his hand- he leaned over without stopping to pick them up, tossing them into the air and catching them while walking. He pressed one of the buttons on the key's sensor and the car beeped once, signifying that only the two front seats were now unlocked.

"Well, neither do I, but I'm not staying behind the final bell till sunset. Hop in."

They both opened their doors, with Len sitting in his driver's seat and Neru sitting in the much-cleaner passenger seat- apparently, Len had spilled many, _many_ drinks of various colors and hues in the driver seat over the course of his ownership of the car. The passenger seat was like new.

Len pressed the radio's 'Play' button as soon as the key turned in the ignition, and the song 'Queen Bee' began to play. He pressed lightly on the gas pedal, and the car was away.

"So," he asked her as she buckled herself in- something he didn't do. "What exactly do you do for extra credit every other day? And isn't there an afterschool class in there or something at the same time?"

"Erm… We just… Talk, I guess." He looked at her, eyebrow raised. "About math, I mean. And my grades, and stuff. And yes; there's a small afterschool thing that goes on. But I'm gone before anyone there arrives."

"Huh." He refocused on the road as they left the school and were now on the main street that led through the city. "Well, they must be arriving pretty late; you're in there till God- knows-when most days."

"Well, honestly, they don't really show up on time as often as before. I used to be walking out as they walked in- now I stay and extra ten minutes and they still don't show up sometimes."

"Who was it, usually?"

"Uh… I think Rin, most times."

"Rin?" In the rest of the day since Luka's class, he had successfully pushed the girl out of his mind. Now his mind picked up where it left off a few hours ago.

"Yeah, but it's usually only Rin. And like I said; she doesn't even show up most of the time anymore."

They stopped at a red light. "Any idea why?"

"Not really. We don't talk much." She looked at him as the light turned green and they began to move forward. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason."

The rest of the drive was silent. Up until Len arrived in front of Neru's house- a two-story white building with, in his opinion, a few windows too many- they both just looked out onto the street ahead. Once the song Len had playing was up, he had turned off the radio and they drove in a silence that they both interpreted in different ways. Regardless, once Neru opened her door to get out, she flashed him a smile.

"Thanks again!"

She closed the door, and began walking up to her home.

"Don't mention it…" Len said quietly, knowing Neru was well out of earshot. "…" He drove off, heading for his own home to prepare himself for an afternoon of slacking and lament.

Neru, at the same time Len was staring at his ceiling, thinking about Rin, was staring at her messenger friend list, hoping that maybe today was the day she'd get lucky and Len would sign on and talk to her.

He didn't. And, as always, Neru closed the program at the end of the day without having said a word.


	4. Chapter 4: Early Morning

If you're wondering what in the hell is going on and why BBLS was a chapter a day but MMC is more like a chapter a week (unintentional), _this_ time it's because I had a _really_ good idea for this chapter. I mean, it was plot-defining, arc-changing, and chock-full of all that character development we know and love. But I scrapped it. Why, you ask? Well, because; I wanted something to write after I finish up this plotline that isn't less than a thousand words and ends with such a fluffy-love scene that it puts BBLS to shame. (Not that I dislike Ones Shots, but still.)

Now, I've scrapped ideas before; but never has one been big enough to support its own multi-chapter fanfiction and never has the idea that maybe I should save this for later come to me more than _half-way through_ _a chapter._

*sigh* …Right. Well, enjoy what wasn't originally the plot. Chapter four. Woo.

…It was a good one, too…

Though I kind of like this one better. And I guess that the other idea was a bit too… Fast, I guess is the word for it. Too much, too soon. Anyway, sorry it's taking so long. Here it is. Enjoy.

**My Missed Chance – Chapter Four**

The next morning, Len was taking getting ready for school a lot slower than he usually would. His alarm clock had woke him up an hour earlier than he meant it to, so all his things were ready long before he needed to get moving. He spent his new free time walking around the house, stopping every once and a while, and looking out the window. It was still darkish outside, with gray clouds filling the sky from the rainstorm that blew through town the previous night. Len sat on the couch and looked outside, staring blankly as the clock on the table next to it moved from one hour left to forty-five minutes. The house was silent.

Len lived alone. While he had a legal guardian, he was never with him aside from government mandated dates and his parents abandoned him years before to pursue a drug habit that led them to an Indian jail cell. He wasn't sure if anyone knew that about him. He'd never told anybody. But it never bothered him much because he made it along just fine without them. His guardian may not ever be there with him, but from what Len had seen he was rolling in a pile of money from work he never talked about and sent Len a weekly check of $750. So long as the government didn't mind his receiving this little payment for living, Len didn't either. It had bought him a new car and the paint job that goes with it. Along with most of everything else he had- he trashed most of the stuff his parents left behind. Which wasn't much.

But he did get lonely. It was a depressing sight: Len lived in a two-story house with three bedrooms, a fully stocked kitchen, and a freaking library of books that he felt would be too much of a hassle to throw out. And he lived there alone. He didn't have visitors; even whenever someone came to the door selling something, he'd just say that his parents weren't home. Come back later. Luckily, most didn't come back, so he didn't have to think on his feet too much. The only social interaction he had was at school. And now, it was really just with Neru and whoever else decided to barge into his business to find out who he was crushing on/messing around with this week. Apparently, most people thought of him as one of two things: a stoic who doesn't like you, or a playboy who's been with every girl in the school and has no plans to stop there.

Len's never been able to place the source of that last one. And not knowing the source of a rumor makes it _very_ difficult to shut down.

But again, he didn't have many friends. He had acquaintances here and there. But he didn't really care if they thought he was a super-powered god-king or not. He had other, more important things to worry about.

He turned his head and watched the clock's minute hand click from one indent to the next. Forty-four minutes. He went back to staring out the window.

When he arrived at school, Len was walking through the white-tiled hallways around twenty minutes before the first bell was scheduled to ring. He was alone; aside from the cameras attached to the roof that ran off of student's paranoia. They never moved- he'd seen the controls for them in the office once, but they never moved. The always just stared off down the hall the same way they always looked, watching people as they walked up and down the halls, going to and fro. They creeped him out. He didn't like being watched.

Which made the fact that Gumi was unsuccessfully stalking him at the moment a bit of a personal inconvenience.

That green-haired girl was still on him about not telling her about his crush on Rin. He'd hoped that she would just give up and go bother someone else, but she was more persistent than others who had tried to get it out of him. Not that persistence changed anything. He was still successfully keeping her away so far, and he didn't plan on changing that because instead of someone _wanting_ to know, said someone _really_ wants to know.

Though stalking him through the halls was a new one.

Len turned the corner, and slammed into someone standing in his way. He didn't fall, but he had to look up to see who it was.

"Oh, Len, wandering the halls I see? Are you eager to get to class or did you finally decide you wanted to talk to someone?" She brushed the single strand of her pink hair that was in front of her face out of her eyes.

As she adjusted her glasses, Len sighed. "Luka… Uh… No, I was just-"

"Mrs. M~!" Gumi's high and cheery voice came up from behind him as she turned the corner. She stopped and smiled. "Oh, hi Len!" she said, trying to play off the fact she was following him. "Were you looking for Luka, too?"

Len looked back from Gumi to Luka, in about the same way he did when they tried to get him to talk in the classroom. He sighed again. "No, but I guess I found her."


	5. Chapter 5: Pushy Friendships

I think it's fairly safe to say that any and all hope of this having the same update schedule as BBLS has been thrown out the window. But it _is_ still being worked on. Just very, very slowly. Not due to laziness; I've just branched out and spread myself a _little_ too thin with my writing. Because I'm a twit.

Also, did you notice my retcon of 'Big Brother, Little Sister's' chapter thirteen? It's not much- I just added a few words near the end- but it fixed a very large problem. Said problem being me off-handedly saying that Neru was Len's cousin. Definitely _not_ something that would work with the current canon. Fixed.

Though it did give me a nice new Fanfiction idea. As if my 'To Do' list wasn't long enough already.

The goal of today's short and belated entry; the set-up for a longer and hopefully sooner entry.

Enjoy as best you can.

**My Missed Chance – Chapter Five**

"You two planned this, right." Len said dryly. "There's no way you could've cornered me in the halls by accident."

"Len, I have no idea what you're talking about." Luka said with a smile on her face. "But since, by pure coincidence, we're all here, how about we all go back to my classroom before the crowd of students comes along and talk a bit. What do you say, Gumi?"

"Sure! Sounds like a great idea!"

"Well," Len said, "You two can go have fun. But I don't have anything to talk about with you."

"And where else do you have to go, Len?" Luka said, "Have a girl you need to go meet?"

"Wha-? No!" Len spat out the words.

"Then we _do_ have something to talk about, it seems." Luka smiled as Len was suddenly pushed along by Gumi. Before he could protest, she said, "Now, now, don't worry; this'll only take a minute."

"We only _have_ a minute," Gumi pointed out, following behind.

"Is taking me somewhere against my will even legal?" Len asked.

Luka responded, "Teacher."

"Ah."

"Besides, it's in your best interests," Gumi assured him.

"How do you figure?"

"Well…" She thought as she pushed him along. "You won't be in such a sulk after Luka helps set you up with whoever this girl is. And you'll get to be better friends with me! Even _if_ you don't get into a relationship, wouldn't this be worth it because of that?"

"Uh…"

Gumi stopped pushing Len along when they reached the door to Luka's classroom.

"Well, here we are." Luka said. "Let's head inside and take our seats, shall we?" She opened the door and Gumi poked Len in the back as she walked in behind him. Closing the door behind her, Luka walked over to the board, popping the cap off of one of the markers."Take a seat, class, take a seat. Today's agenda," she started writing on the board, "Get Len a girlfriend before his sulking drives others to suicide." She capped the marker and turned to Len and Gumi. "Any questions?"


	6. Chapter 6: Outburst

I'd feel dishonest if I kept this unposted while it was finished, so here: A change of mood and pace, for plot advancement and whatnot that the story insists it requires.

There are a lot of things in this chapter that I feel I may have messed up on, or ideas I feel I could have done better with. But this is how it ended up. Hope it works.

Enjoy.

**My Missed Chance – Chapter Six**

"So, let's start small here," Luka says sitting down behind her desk. "What's the girl's name?"

Len didn't say anything, but gave her a cold stare.

"…Hmm…" Luka opened up her laptop. "Well, we can't just sit here waiting on you if you're going to be like that…" She clicks a few buttons on the keyboard.

Len, not being able to see her screen, asks, "…What are you doing?"

"Bringing up your grades, Len." She typed some more. "Let's see here… Ooh… A 69, Len? You're already failing; it would be a shame if your score dropped any more…"

Len raised an eyebrow, then caught on. "…Wait. You're not seriously-"

"68." Luka said. Gumi remained silent, just behind the desk Len sat in.

"Wait a second, you can't-!"

"67." She clicked the mouse each time she said a lower number.

"Are you serious? You're going to lower my grade if I don't let you in on my personal life?"

"Maybe." Luka shrugged. "I can always bring it back up later. Or not. You're choice."

"That's… That's freaking sadistic!" He tries to stand, but Gumi stops him. "Tell this girl to move!"

"Len, that's very rude. You should apologize. 66, by the way."

"Gah!"

"Oh, just tell her already, Len," Gumi said, standing by his desk and keeping him in. "Why do you even want to keep it a secret from us anyway? We're here to help- we won't tell anyone."

"Because it's none of your business!" Len exclaimed, trying unsuccessfully to get passed her arms. "Why do _you_ even want to know so badly? Do you think that getting me with her would fix everything? It would only cause more problems!"

"How can you know?" Luka asked, clicking the mouse. "If you told us, maybe we could make it work out."

"No, God damn it, you couldn't! Would you just stop all this and listen to me?"

Luka and Gumi were silent.

"This isn't anything you should be getting involved in! You're probably the main reason it's a problem in the first place! Don't try and fix it! Just sit in the corner and shut up! Leave me to my moaning and groaning- I'm not hurting anyone! Why do you have to get involved, _why_ do you have to try and help? You're only going to make things worse than they are! Can't you keep out of it, can't you just stay away? You're my teacher! Just stand in front of my every day and fail me like the rest of them! Stop trying to be some kind of freaking love therapist! Do you even _have_ a boyfriend, Luka? Do you even _know_ what it's like to be in my position? The girl I'm in love with is in love with someone else! There's no fixing that, there's no changing that! That's just the way it is! Why can't you just- Just…!" He collapses into his chair and slams his head onto the desk. A few tears start to fall from his eyes. "…Jesus…" Gumi backs away from him as Luka nods and gets up. "Why can't you just leave me alone… Why do you have to keep bringing her up like this… Why can't you…"

Luka reaches the side of his desk. "Len." Len looks up. Tears were falling, but he wasn't flustered or red-faced.

"…What."

She says, "Gumi, I think it would be best if you went to the library."

She nods and leaves, quietly closing the door behind her.

Luka looks at Len, and kneels down next to him. She says, "Len. You may not know this, but I also know what it's like to have an unrequited love."

"…"

"But you're right. It doesn't give me permission to try and get into other's personal lives, and it doesn't give me the right to play cupid. Especially when people don't want me to." They made eye contact, but Len broke it quickly. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been forcing this on you. You obviously don't want others to interfere, and if you think you have it all under control, or even if you just don't want to talk about it, then I'll respect that. I'll leave it to you."

"…"

"But if you ever decide that you _do_ want to talk about, I'll always be here. You know where to find me."

"…Were you actually lowering my grade just now?" Len asked, looking at her. His tears stopped and his face was dry.

"Hah…" She chuckles lightly. "No, don't worry. The laptop, it isn't even on. I was just clicking randomly."

She stands and prepares to leave.

"…Don't you have to stay for class?"

"Actually, I called in sick. There's a sub coming in today, and I should probably be leaving now, before they arrive. And before I get caught." She starts toward the door again.

"Wait." Len says.

She turns around. "Yes?"

"What's his name?"

"…The sub? I don't know, I…"

"No. You said that you love someone… What's his name?"

Luka smiled. "Don't be a hypocrite, Len. And beside the point," she opens the door and starts to leave. "It's 'her.' I'm a lesbian."

She closes the door, leaving a bewildered Len behind her.


	7. Chapter 7: Agreement

Aaaand we're back from the dead.

To sum up the past near month-and-a-half; procrastination, procrastination, sleep, procrastination. With a little bit of Writer's Block tossed in for anger purposes.

School's here, which apparently kicks me back into gear. I won't question it.

Hiatus over. Time to get back to work.

Enjoy.

(It would be just hilarious if I didn't post anything for another week after this. You know. After the anger wears off.)

(…I'll, uh, try not to let that happen.)

**My Missed Chance – Chapter Seven**

"-And then she said that she was going to go over to Haku's house instead if I didn't let her use it, and so I said 'Fine, go ahead and go, then, see if I care,' and so then Teto said…"

Len and Neru were walking together from his car across the school parking lot, about ten minutes before the bell the day after he spoke with Luka. Len had received a phone call from Neru when he was preparing to leave himself, saying that she missed the bus and needed someone to drive her. He agreed, went over to pick her up, and assumed that they'd have a nice, quiet morning to collect themselves.

He was wrong.

"-What gets me about the whole thing is that she didn't even tell me who it was." Neru looks at Len as they walked side by side. "Are you even listening?"

"Hm? Yeah, yeah, I'm listening," he said, quickly hobbling together the sparse details he'd actually heard her say over the course of their drive. "Haku, Teto, your phone, and some kid I don't know. Right?"

"You have to ask if you're right?" She shoved him lightly. "You never listen to my stories, Len. I listen to you whenever to have something important to tell me."

"I have never once had anything important to tell you."

"But if you did, I'd be listening!" she exclaimed. "The point is you shouldn't ignore your friends. And you should talk more. That's a point too."

"I wasn't ignoring you, Neru; I got most of what you were saying." As they reached the school's front door, he held it open for her as she entered. He walked in behind her and she waited for him to catch up. "I've just had other things on my mind lately."

"Like what?"

"You don't need to worry about it."

"Aaw, see?" She tugged at his arm. "This is what I mean. You never tell anyone anything about yourself, and most people think you're a loner who never says anything nowadays."

"They shouldn't. I hang out with you and you talk enough for both of us."

"But they do anyway! And you need to fix that by making new friends, or something!"

"I have plenty of friends already, Neru."

"Really?" She looked at him skeptically as they stopped in front of his locker. "Name some."

He paused midway through dialing the combination. "…You?"

"That's sweet, but I don't count because I'm asking you."

"Well- Wait, what do you mean by 'sweet?'"

"Name some more."

"Erm…" He thought over his current social life. "Uh, Rin? I Guess?"

Neru raised an eyebrow. "That's it?"

"You're surprised?"

"Um, yes! You're not the most outwardly social person I know, yeah, but you're still a cool guy!"

"…Uh…" Len took stuffed his bag into his locker and closed the door. "Thanks, I guess?"

"You're welcome. Oh," she gasped, "Hey! I have an idea."

"Oh really." He said dryly as he turned with a single book under his arm, walking off towards Neru's locker- their usual second morning destination whenever he drove her. "What is it?"

"You should just become friends with all the people I'm friends with. I could introduce you to them before class starts and we could meet up later to-"

"That's alright, Neru," he said as her talking slowed to a stop.

"…What do you mean, 'alright?' I think you'd like them, and I'm pretty sure they don't have any reason to not like you."

"That's just… That's alright." He scratched the back of his head and Neru stepped up her pace to walk a few feet in front of him. She spun around as they turned past a corner into a near-empty hallway and walked backwards, looking at him. "Nothing personal against your friends, but I'm not interested in meeting new people any time soon."

"Hmph." Neru crossed her arms. "That's not an attitude you win with in life."

"It's the attitude _I_ win with in life."

"Oh, come ooon, Len. I…" She stuttered. "I, uh, want to spend more time with you."

He slowed and gave her a quizzical look.

"Er…You know. With my other friends, and all…"

It took Len a few seconds to respond. He thought, 'I… Hm.'

"Uh… Well, I guess I could go somewhere…" Their wide eyes met and blinked. "…With… You and your friends."

"Um… Good." After a few moments, Neru smiled. "Good! I'll get a few people together and we'll… Go… Do… Stuff."

"Sounds… Like fun. I guess?"

The school bell rang out.

"Oh," Neru looked up at a nearby clock. "I guess I'm going to my locker alone today, then, eh?"

"No. No, it's fine." Len motioned for her to come along with him. "I'm sure Luka won't care if I'm late again."

Neru's eyes practically glistened a smile. "You're sure?"

"'Course." He said, shrugging. "If I told her it was because I'm 'making new friends,' anyway." He motioned for her again. "Now let's go. I don't want to take too much time away from these other friends of yours."

"Um… Alright?"

"I'm sure they'll be _fascinated_ by your tales of arguments between Haku and Teto."

"Ah. Alright."

They smiled at each other. 'I… _Guess_ it's not a total waste of time to hang out with Neru for a day.' Len thought. 'It can't go too badly.'

They smiled again, and went on their way.


	8. Chapter 8: Weekend

_Aaaaaaaaah._

I just noticed a detail that I want to change in the first few chapters.

_But I've already preformed this year's quota for retconning._

This chapter could have been that little bit better from that.

Booo.

*grumble* …Fine, whatever.

Enjoy my begrudged continuity. Also; This seemed longer on paper. But hey; Next day chapter update. Nice change of pace.

**My Missed Chance – Chapter Eight**

Neru stretched her arms up into the air as she yawned from the heat of the noon sun. Behind her, waiting on the street curb with bored expressions, was the 'group' of friends she'd brought along with her; Two brown-haired seniors named Al and Lola. As Len's car pulled up, Neru started towards the passenger window as he it rolled down on learned instinct. Len leaned across from the driver's seat to speak with her.

"Are they it?" he asked with a gesture before she could say anything. "I expected more from the regional socialite."

"Most people are busy on the weekends," she said back, arms folded on top of each other as she balanced them on the passenger door, leaning in. "And besides; didn't you _say_ that you didn't want to meet too want new people?"

"Something like that, yeah. And I didn't say I'm not glad." He smirked and hit the door's unlock button. "Now hop in."

"Alright." She opened her door partway and turned to Al and Lola. "Come on, guys!"

The two of them walked around to the back passenger seats and got in at the same time as Neru.

"So," Len starts, "Where did you say we were going again?"

"Let's try the mall. That alright?" She turns back to Al.

"Sure." He shrugs.

"I'm fine with that," Lola adds when Neru glances at her.

"Mall it is!" She sits up straight in her seat and smiles at Len. "Let's go!"

"Aaaalllright." He thought, as he pulled the car forward, 'Let's see if this turns out to be a complete waste of time.'

Around ten minutes later, Len was pulling his key out of the ignition after finding a parking space.

"Okay," he said popping open his door and unlocking the rest. "Let's get in there, waste some money."

"You couldn't have parked a little closer?" Lola said getting out.

"If I had a broken leg or something, then yeah." he said getting out after her. Closing the door, he finished, "The handicap spots are clear. So if you or your boy want to volunteer…"

"I think we're fine, thanks," she said, closing her own door. "Let's get moving."

"Christ, it looks like more than five minutes just to walk there from here," Al said, looking up. "Capitalism at its finest."

"Are you for real?" Lola told him in a harsh voice, "Save the hippie crap for when we graduate. Now shut up and hold my hand."

"Great friends," Len said helping Neru out of his car. "Are they always like that?"

"Most of the time." She shut her door.

"So this is usual?"

"Yeah, why?"

He shook his head. "How'd you even become friends with them?"

Shrugging, she answered, "Stuff just sort of… Happens. We all have a class together and needed someone to talk to."

"There weren't any other seniors in there?"

"Well…" She stopped and thought. "There were some juniors there, too."

"Like?"

"Miku, for one. Haku, too. But they didn't really talk to her and with Miku gone it only left me."

"Hmm." Len looked ahead at Al and Lola. "They didn't seem too thrilled to be coming out here."

"And you were?" She chuckled. "Heh, actually they were a bit surprised when I asked them. We talk, yeah, but I don't think I've ever gone anywhere with them outside of school."

"Huh." Len said, "Not like us, then, eh?"

"Uh…" Neru coughed. "Nope. Not like you and me at all."

There was a brief moment where neither Len nor Neru said anything to each other. Len didn't notice it, but to Neru it felt much longer than it actually was. Even Al and Lola, a few dozen feet ahead of them, seem to be quiet.

To break the one-sided tension, Neru quickly said, "Actually… I don't think I've been to _your_ house yet, have I?"

"No." Len answered, "I don't think you have."

"…" She could feel a bit of tension in his voice. "Um… Maybe after this, you could bring me there?" He looked at her. "We could just drive by, if you don't think I'd be allowed in. I at least want to know _where_ you live."

"…I'm… Not so sure that's a good idea."

"Why not?" she asked innocently. "We've known each other for a long time; I don't even think I know the name of the street you live on."

"I don't think…"

"Don't think what?" she asked him. "I'm only asking to see your house, not your porn stash."

"Wait, what."

"Ha ha!" She shoved him lightly. When he finally laughed back a bit, she said, "So what's the problem, again?"

Once he stopped laughing, he thought, '…Alright. What's the worst thing that could happen to me?' "Sure," he said. "after this, if we don't eat the day away, and after we drop off these two," he motioned ahead to Al and Lola. "I'll take you by my place. Alright?"

She nodded with a smile. "Alright."

They continued on towards the mall together, Neru successfully hiding her blush.


	9. Chapter 9: Sighting

The following chapter includes: length I wish were longer, details I tried to put emphasis on, pointless delays in posting, and a possible side effect of raised eyebrows.

It was written half-way by the time Eight was posted. Though, any confusion, I blame on you.

Enjoy.

**My Missed Chance – Chapter Nine**

As the two of them went past the Main entrance's sliding doors, the light chatter of Al and Lola ahead of them was replaced with the heavy chatter of the mall's many other shoppers. People, mainly teenagers, holding bags bigger than themselves darted with their friends from one part of the building to the other, dashing past Neru and Len as they walked.

As someone bumped into his arm walking by, Len said, "Crowed place, isn't it?"

"Yeah…" Neru agreed as she side-stepped a small child. "More people than I thought there'd be."

"Guess this explains all the cars in the parking lot."

"Hmm… Well," she started, "Where do we want to go first?"

"First, I want to figure out where they're going," he said with a point at Al and Lola, far ahead of them, not looking back. "Aren't they with us?"

"Oh-Hey!" Neru exclaimed, running a few feet ahead of Len. "You _guuuys_; we're supposed to be sticking together!"

Al turned back while walking and replied with a wave of his free hand- the other holding Lola's- as he mouthed the words 'We'll be right back.'

"Aargh…" She turned back to Len. "I guess it's just us now, or something."

"Hmm." Len said, "Well, I can work with that."

"What do you mean?"

"I think I like it better this way; just us for the day."

"Uh…" She coughed. "Well, uh… I… I'm glad, too, Len…"

"Didn't know them anyway. So," he turned to face her completely. "Where to, again?"

"Um… This way!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him with her. "There's this place I wanted to go see- let's go now, before I forget!"

Almost tripping from the sudden jolt, Len kept up as Neru guided the two of them through the crowds.

A few moments after they make a turn, she stopped; they'd reached their destination.

Len looked up.

"…No."

"Oh, come ooon," Neru pleaded. "It would only take me a minute, I swear!"

"Everything's pink."

"But look what they've got!" She pointed at the window and the mannequin inside. "No other place has that hat in stock."

"It's pink, too." He looked at her. "You wear yellow."

"It's light purple, not light red. And besides," she ran up to and stood next to the window, "Don't you think it would look great on me?"

Len looked at her insistent smile, and sighed. Rolling his eyes, he agreed. "Fine… But I'm not carrying anything." The two of them started walking in.

"Aaaww… You'd make a girl carry _everything_ herself?"

Len blinked. "How much… Do you plan to buy…?"

"Oh, not much, not much… Maybe three bags, or something."

"That… Sounds like more than a hat, Neru."

"Oh, yeah-yeah, but look at _this_…!" And her shopping spree began.

Around roughly twenty minutes later, Neru was handing Len the fifth chest-seized bag of what would have been many more, had he not talked her out of several redundancies, assumed season taboos, and general bad ideas. Eventually, he tried using his boundless charisma to convince her she was done.

It earned him a break.

"Aagh…" He grumbled a sigh as he set down the bags and sat on a nearby bench. "Neru…" he said as she sat down next to him. "This looks like more than three."

She smiled. "Whoops."

He sighed.

"But hey, I _did_ buy the hat." She leaned over and dug through the nearest bag. "It's somewhere in here… I think…"

Len sat up straight and looked around the mall's foyer.

When he looked pat Neru, across the suddenly much less crowded room, his eyes opened wide, his breathing slowed, and his heartbeat increased.

He whispered, lower than Neru could hear; "…Rin…"

She was laughing again, like when he last saw her, eyes closed as she was walking and guided along by her older brother. She held a bag in one hand; Kaito's arm in the other. Time seemed to slow down for Len as he watched her short hair flow back with the occasional draft of wind from the entrance they closed on, blowing back with the laugh he didn't need to hear to recognize. Kaito was smiling at her. She stopped holding his arm, and they were suddenly holding hands.

Len cringed.

And Neru sat back up again.

"There!" she said, smiling, as she fixated the hat on top of her head. "What do you think? Good as I thought it'd be?"

She didn't notice Len's delay in making eye contact. He looked at her, glanced away in time for Rin to vanish in a crowd coming with a new wave of shoppers, the refocused on her.

"Um… Yeah," he said. "Yeah. It looks great on you."

"You think so?"

"Yeah." He looked back off at the thickening crowd. "Really… Really great."


	10. Chapter 10: Rainy Drive

This feels like a filler chapter, but maybe it's just me. Also, this was meant to be up and done on Sunday morning- for future reference, it is currently Friday night. If you had asked me last weekend 'When's the next chapter update?' I'd've said 'Sometime Sunday.' And then you'd all laugh and call me a liar because it's been nearly a week. Bleaaah.

Enjoy; it's longer than usual.

**My Missed Chance – Chapter Ten**

"Uh huh… …Yeah… Well, okay, but, I mean…"

Len sat waiting on the bench after Neru's phone started ringing half-way through the second bag. Whether her plan was to actually have Len hold up every single piece of clothing she bought a second time around in the middle of the mall or not, she was stopped before she could go any further and spoke to whoever it was that had called her for three minutes before the conversation ended.

"But if you're there, then how're you going to…? You'll call _who_? But I thought…" A few seconds later, she huffed and closed the phone. "Well, goodbye to you, too, Al…" She walked back over to Len.

"Bad time to ask?" he said.

"It was Al, saying that if we wanted to we should just go now and they'll catch a ride with someone else."

"Well that doesn't sound too-"

"I may have paraphrased."

"…Oh." He sat up from a slump as she sat down. "So… _Should_ we leave, then?"

"I don't know… I _guess_."

"You seem angry."

"I'm upset." She crossed her arms and stared at the floor. "The only people who agreed to come are leaving us behind. Wouldn't that get you mad?"

He shook his head. "More confused. I wouldn't quite get it if you left me behind if we went somewhere."

"What about someone else?"

He blinked. "…I'd be out with someone else?"

She laughed a bit, and uncrossed her arms. "You suck. I can't be angry around you."

"Well, you're the only one." He stood up and stretched his arms. "So. _Should_ we go?"

"…Yeah." She stood up with him. "Let's get going."

"Sure thing."

"In fact, I think maybe I'll go ahead and wait at the car for you."

"…Why?"

"It'll be a long walk with all these bags to the car. I don't want to slow you down any."

She laughed, winked, and skipped off before he could say anything. Watching her stop at the door, turn back, mouth 'Don't just stand there,' and wave, he sighed. He looked at the bags. He looked at the door.

It _was_ a long walk.

He grabbed the first two in one hand, another two in the other, and performed the equivalent of a magic trick to get the fifth one under his arm.

A few minutes later, he was walking out the mall's front door.

Another few minutes later, Neru and his car came into view.

He tried not to grumble _too_ loudly as he made the final stretch, and set the bags down when he got to the trunk, which Neru was sitting on top of, waiting.

"Whew…" He stood up, breaking the hunch he swore he could feel growing on his back as he made the journey.

"You take too long." Neru hopped down from the car. "Ice cream?"

"Hmm?" He looked at her extended hand and the one by her face, and saw that she had been holding and eating an ice cream cone the entire time. She handed him one. "You actually made it to another store in the time it took me to walk here?"

"Yup." She continued licking hers. "Like I said…" she started in between eating. "You take too long. Now unlock the car; it's getting hot outside."

"Right…" He fumbled in his pocket with one hand, balancing the ice cream in the other. Hitting the button when he got the keys out, he opened up the back hood, placed each bag in one by one, closed it, and came around to the front to get in the driver's seat.

Sitting down and closing the door, Neru looked at him and stopped eating. "You take too long."

He looked back. "…Shut up." She smiled at him as he started the car.

"So I get to see your house now, right?" Neru asked him as he navigated the maze that was the mall's parking lot while driving and eating at the same time. "Before you drop me off I get _the privilege_ of being driven by Len's house?"

He chuckled. "No, I'm changing the plan for no reason and I'm dropping you on the street curb." She laughed and he loosened up. "I think it'll be fine if you're actually inside and not looking at it with binoculars, though."

"Oh, really," she said finishing off her cone. "Well, aren't I lucky."

"Well, you _are_ the first person I'm taking there."

"Really?" She looked over at him. "Well, I'll be sure not to break anything, then."

"Just be sure not to go into my room right away, or anything." A beat went by. "I'll need time to hide my porn stash."

The laughter nearly made him drop his ice cream on the seat.

"Heh heh… Careful," Neru said. "Your car's messed up enough already."

"Hey, _you're_ side is okay-looking."

"That just means you never sit over here."

"Exactly; I'm _responsible_ with that side."

The two of them shared a quick laugh after that, and then shared a slow silence. It looked later than it actually was outside, and with darker clouds forming thick groups in the sky, blocking out the lighter ones, it looked like it would be raining soon. The sound of outside traffic, zooming past the car in the lane going the opposite direction, came in through the clear glass windows, adding a soft and semi-repetitive noise in the background.

After a few more moments passed, Neru said, "…Hey."

Len glanced at her. "Hmm?"

"I just noticed; your radio's not on."

He looked at it, looked at her, then looked back to the surprisingly empty lane on their side of the road. "Oh, yeah, I guess it's not." A beat went by. "…Do you want it on?"

"No, no… I kind of like the silence, actually. It's just that, whenever you drive me places, you usually have a song playing or something. It's a nice little change." Again, a silent beat went by. "Not that I don't like your songs, or anything."

Len cracked a smile. "Heh… I think you would've said something by now if you didn't."

"Heh… Yeah…"

They were silent again, and rain began to sprinkle down, in moments covering the front window and the rest of the car with a wall of water. Len, holding the wheel in place with the fist he had around the ice cream cone, reached over and pressed a button on the panel below the dashboard, turning on the windshield wipers. The squeak from their metronome tilting nearly over-shadowed the sound of the outside cars.

Neru yawned. "So," she started, "have you actually never brought anyone to your house before?"

"If I have, I don't remember." He kept looking straight ahead, back in the position he was driving in before, with his right hand keeping the vehicle steady and his left arm resting on the driver's door. "It's nothing special, if you're thinking we'll be stopping in front of a mansion, or something."

"Don't downplay it, Len; I've heard the rumors."

He scoffed lightly. "There're rumors about my _house_ now?"

"You'd be surprised. There's a lot of rumors about you." She yawned again. Her tiredness was evident in her voice as she said, "You were a… A real conversation topic… Before Miku left."

His eyes glanced at her. She was sitting now with her head resting in her right hand, elbow propped up on the car door. Her eyes, resting half-open, showed even more so than her voice that she was on the verge of drifting off to sleep. "Oh really?" he asked her. "Like what?"

"I'll tell you… When we get… To your place…" She paused. "The rain… Almost always… Makes me go to sleep…" Her arm fell from the door, she guided her head to the side of the window, and fell into slumber, rain lightly tapping the other side of the glass, less than an inch away from her closed eyes. The rest of the trip was spent, by Len, in silence.

When Neru next awoke, it was with her eyes still closed and to the sound of an engine cutting off, followed by the click of a door unlocking.

"Oh, you're awake," Len's voice said. "That's either a huge coincidence or you really do only sleep in when it rains."

She opened her eyes, blinking a few times to the returned, yet dim, sunlight. The rain outside had stopped, and Len had opened his door after unlocking hers.

Stepping out and leaning back in, he said, "Here we are."

She shook herself awake and looked up, out the window.

Len had parked them in the driveway in front of the double garage doors of a two story house. Made of hardwood and painted beige-white there were two windows on the side of the home that faced them, and the clouds in the sky behind it gave off a picturesque feel.

'This is your house?' she thought, thinking that she'd said it out loud.

She realized she was silent when Len, from around the front of the car, asked her, "You coming?" snapping her out of what was left of her sleep-daze.

She sat up and looked around, spotting an ice cream cone filled with melted vanilla, sitting in the driver side cup holder.

"Hey…" she mumbled through her opening window.

"Yes?" He stopped and turned back to her, still fumbling with his keys.

She pointed at the melted cone. "You didn't finish it."

Len glanced from her to it, then smiled at her. "I'll be sure to pay you back later. Besides; it's hard to drive and eat at the same time."

"That didn't stop you when I was awake," she said.

"Yeah, well, you didn't have to drive through the rain. Now," he singled out his house key, "Let's head inside."

She stepped out while she opened the door, stretched, yawned again, and followed him in.

His house, to her, felt mush more open than her own. It was furnished; but felt like something was missing. There were many less windows than her own home, which made it feel like they were cut off from the outside when Len shut the door behind them.

Her thoughts were interrupted. "So," he started, "What do you think?"

She turned around, having taken several steps ahead of him. She said, "It's really nice! A little sparse, yeah, but I like it!" She turned and motioned with her hand across the room. "That's a pretty big library over there. Are any of the books yours, or are they all your parent's?"

For a moment, Len was silent, then said, "…They… They're mostly my parent's. But some of them are mine."

"Cool, cool… So," she looked around again, "This is where you live, eh? It's not… _Exactly_ on par with the rumors, but..."

"What did the rumors say, again?" He watched Neru hide a smile. "You said you'd tell me once we got here. Right?"

She smiled more clearly at him. "Maaaaybe. But I want to see the rest first, okay?"

"Oh, you want the _grand_ tour, eh?" He smiled back at her.

"Oh, I want the _grand_ tour."

They laughed.

"Alright then," Len said, "Come on up. This is pretty much all the downstairs is, but there's more up there." He paused on the first step of the staircase. "Not _much_ more. But there's a plasma TV in my bedroom, so there's that." He led her up the stairs as she walked closely behind.

Despite nothing happening, Neru's heart couldn't help but speed up. She didn't say anything, and Len didn't catch on, but climbing up the stairs, nearing Len's bedroom, sent her into a silent frenzy.

She'd be lying if she said she never imagined it happening before.

In an attempt to calm herself down by talking, she said, trying not to stutter, "Um… S-So where are your parents at, usually, Len? There were no other cars parked in the driveway."

Reaching the top of the stairs and continuing down the turn in the hallway, he shrugged. "Damn if I know. Could be dead; we haven't kept up."

Her interest piqued, she asked, "Wait… Your parents don't live with you?"

"Not anymore, and not for a long time. I've got a godfather who drops in every blue moon, but other than that, yeah; I'm basically on my own."

Neru stopped in the hall. "Is… Is that even legal?"

"Apparently." Len stopped and turned to face her. "Something wrong?"

"…That's…"

"Don't worry about it." He said, "It's pretty quiet around here by myself and I do just fine on my own."

"…"

He shrugged again. "Has to happen eventually, anyway. And I'm not _technically_ on my own; good ol' god-dad drops in and mails me cash every week or so, so I'm pretty set by myself."

"Well," Neru started, "You're not _completely_ by yourself." She started walking again.

"Oh?" Len turned to keep facing her as she walked. "What do you mean?"

She stopped, turned, smiled, and winked, saying, "I'm here now, that's what I mean! And if things are so good by yourself, things'll be even better with a good friend around. Right?"

Len opened his mouth to say something, but settled for a smile. "Right," he said. "Right." He continued with her the last few steps to a door at the end of the hallway.

"So then" Neru said, "This is your room, right?"

"Yup." He rested his hand on the doorknob. "Well. Let's go in."


	11. Chapter 11: Listening In

I seriously ran out of chapter title ideas around number three; it's been on-the-spot guesswork ever since then, and I'm feeling that now it shows.

Here's the next chapter. Hope it was worth the extra wait.

Also, I say this again; Len is not a role model. I know you're smart enough to know this, but I'll wish no legal ramifications on myself if someone unusual wanders in, reads this and decides, 'Oh hey- that's a really great idea.'

No. No it is not a great idea. Take a time out.

For the rest of everyone else; Enjoy, as per usual.

**My Missed Chance – Chapter Eleven**

Neru sat down on the bottom right corner on top of his queen-sized bed. The dim yellow light almost directly above her was on, and with the only window in the room not facing the sun, it was the only source of light for the two of them. "Comfy!" Neru said, bouncing up and down on Len's mattress's bedding. "I could see myself sleeping on this." She laid down on it.

"Mm." Len walked in, closed the door with his foot, and picked up the television remote from a nearby tabletop. "Well, you look like you're enjoying yourself," he said, seeing Neru sprawled out on his mattress. "You know there's a T.V, right?" She nods eyes closed and smiling. "But the bed is the first thing that catches your eye?"

"I'm a big fan of beds." She sat up. "But the T.V.'s nice, too."

"I'd hope you think that," he said standing next to its screen. "It cost me over twelve hundred dollars to get it."

Neru's eyes went wide. "Whoa!" she said, "How much money does your Godfather send you?"

"About seven hundred a week."

She nearly choked on the air. "What! Per _week_?" He nodded. "Ignoring that you haven't been giving me money gifts, why aren't you flashing some of that money around at school? You'd have more friends than you'd know what to do with."

He shook his head. "It's not that I'd have trouble making friends, Neru; remember how quickly we got along?"

"Erm… Yeah. Yeah I do."

"You practically jumped on me when I introduced myself."

"Uh…" She coughed.

"In fact…" he thought as he spoke, "I think you actually did later that day."

"You were saying?" she said, trying to quickly change the subject.

"Huh? Oh; yeah, yeah, right. Anyway- it's not that I can't make any; it's that there aren't any people worth making friends with at our school."

"Nuh-_Aw_." She said defensively. "There're plenty of people to be friends with."

"Not good friends," he countered.

"Well… You're friends with me, aren't you?"

"Yes." He nodded. "And that should say a lot about how I see us." He stopped and thought about what he just said. "…That… Came out weird."

"Right…" Neru didn't mind what he said. But she wasn't about to tell him that.

"And anyway," he said, pressing the 'Power' button on his remote control, "Most of that money is spent on food and the bills they send me. You know. So I don't die or have my house taken."

"Your Godfather doesn't pay the bills for you?" she asked him.

"Nope." He stood by waiting for the TV to finish warming up. "I mean it when I say I'm on my own out here."

"Wow…"

During the silence that followed, the TV's start-up ended, and it flashed on. Len turned his head just in time to see the first few seconds of static. As he flipped through the channels, finding them all to be the same fuzzy screen, he sighed and said, "Guess the storm knocked the satellite out."

"Was it that bad?" Neru asked.

"Looks like it was."

"Why don't you get cable instead of a dish? It rains pretty often around here, and at least your TV won't go out every time…"

He shrugged, saying, "I don't watch TV much, I guess, so it's not usually a problem. "That," he added, "And like I said before; food and taxes."

"How do you pay those, by the way? The bills and stuff. Aren't you… A little young?"

"Goddad's given me all the information I'd need to forge a signature with his consent. It's how I've gotten through school this far without having to take anything to him. He's practically handed me a stamp with his name on it."

"…That's… Illegal. Right?"

"Think so. But no one seems to mind. And anything major he takes care of on the days he does drop by."

"…Hm."

"Anyway. Cable and TV aren't high on the priority list at the moment. But I do keep busy around here."

"Doing what?" she asked him, ignoring the confession of committing forgery as if it were the most natural thing in the world. And really, to her, coming from Len- it might as well have been. She moved on; "You're not online much."

Len blinked. He said, "…Oh. Oh, yeah! Completely forgot about Messenger. Sorry about that. You… Haven't ever waited on me, or anything. Have you?"

She chuckled, somewhat nervously. "No, no… I've just noticed from time to time, that's all."

"Mm…" He turned off the television. "Well, there isn't much else to do here with the TV out. Want to go back downstairs?"

"And do what?" she asked.

"I don't know," he said, "Chill?" Shrugging, he added, "Unless you want to go home, or something."

Neru quickly said, "No, just hanging around sounds okay."

"Well then," he tossed the remote back onto the table. "Let's head on down, again."

They opened the room's door, walked out, and Neru followed her blonde-haired crush down the stairs to the larger library room, where there was the same single window on one wall and the same bookcases lining the others.

As they entered, Len collapsed on the room's couch. "Ahh…" He said, "So I hope you enjoyed that little adventure." He watched as Neru took a seat next to him. "Sorry about the dish being out."

"It's alright," Neru said with a smile. "Gives us more time to talk."

"About what?" Len asked.

"Um… Stuff."

A second of silence; an instant of confused tension. On Neru's part. Len looked at her and asked,

"…What kind of… Stuff?"

Shifting in her seat, she said, "…Well… You know… Stuff."

They looked at each other.

He said, "Yeah, that helps."

She let out a nervous laugh.

Len said, "I take it you have something on your mind you want to talk about?"

"…Well… You know how I sometimes stay late in Luka's room?" Len nodded. "And how there's another group that stays there after school?"

He nodded again. "You said they weren't usually coming anymore, right?"

She nodded at him, almost somewhat meekly. "Y-Yeah. Well, they _used_ to not show up."

He looked over and out the window. "Rin's going back, then?"

He saw her shake her head. "No, Rin still hasn't. It's somebody new now."

He looked back over at her. "Who?"

"A girl named Gumi." His eyebrow rose. She noticed. "Do you know her?"

He nodded, slowly. "Yeah. She's in Luka's class with me. First Hour."

"Oh!" Neru exclaimed. "I guess that explains why she was asking me this, then."

Len went very quickly over what he remembered about every conversation with the green-haired Gumi he'd ever had. And when he was done, he became very quickly almost visibly exasperated. Almost.

He spoke slowly. Not out of deliberation, but out of worry. "…What… What did she ask you… About…?"

"Well… You, actually."

Len mentally sighed. 'Crap.' "…Uh… What about me, specifically?"

"…Erm…" She squirmed uncomfortably. "…Maaaybe I shouldn't be telling you this…"

"Hm." 'Well,' he thought, 'We can't have any of that.' "It's a little late for not telling me," he told her, "Don't you think?"

"…Errr…" She looked around, avoiding eye contact. For the first time in a long while, Len noticed a faint red tint in her face.

She was blushing.

She said, "…Uh, sh-she asked me about if you had… If you had…" She cleared her throat, and finished her stumbled-over sentence. "She asked me about who your girlfriend was."

Len blinked, and took a few precious seconds to push the worst possibilities out of his mind. 'Okay,' he thought, 'That's not _quite_ as bad as it could've been.' "My… Girlfriend?" he asked.

Neru nodded, face faintly pink. "She, uh, thought that maybe since we were always hanging out, that-"

"That _you_ were my girlfriend?"

Neru's blush reddened slightly. "N-No, no! That maybe I'd, you know, know her name if you had one."

"Oh." Len held himself in place as he started to sink into the couch. "Hm." He said, "I could have sworn that she gave up on that question."

"So, uh… _Do_ you have one?"

"…One what?"

"A girlfriend." She shifted a bit. "You've never… Actually _told_ me if you have one or not."

"I thought all that spare time I had would make it obvious."

Neru gave a few small chuckles.

Len said, "Also, you never asked."

"Mm," she said. "I guess not." A pause. "…Soo…"

"…'So,' what?"

"So… You don't, actually have one, then."

"That's been established, yes."

"…Huh."

"What is it?" he asked.

A bit nervously, she said, "It's just that… I sorta find that hard to believe, is all."

"Why's that?"

"Um…" She thought about her next words carefully, in an attempt to quell her rising heart beat. It didn't help. "It's that… You're the kind of person that I think… You know… Most girls would… Uh… Jump… To… To get a hold of."

"…Really?" he said with a hint of disbelieving suspicion. He dared himself to say it; he could always play it off later if he had to. "…You haven't."

It sent Neru's heart into a frenzy he couldn't easily detect, and it strained her self-control to its limits as she failed to stop the red from flushing her face. She started with a staggering stutter, "I… Uh- Well, th-that's only- I-" before her phone ringing cut her off. As its repeated chime reached its third cry, it finally reached her ears.

She heard Len ask, "…Are… Are you going to answer it, or…?"

She shook back to reality, and out of her nervous and embarrassed daze. "Oh, uh… Yeah, yeah, sure." She took the phone out of her back pocket and flipped it open. Putting it to her ear, she said, "Hello?"

Len slowly stood to his feet. "I'll leave till you're done, okay?" he semi-whispered.

She nodded, and he made his way around the couch's side, exiting the room. However, as far as his distance from Neru sitting on the miniature library's couch was, he was still in earshot. Not on purpose, but when he stopped just around the corner and leaned up against the wall, expecting to hear a muffled Neru a distance away, he underestimated his home's acoustics and heard a clear, albeit quiet, Neru, talking on her phone with whoever it was who called people in the middle of the…

He thought a moment.

…Afternoon. So it wasn't necessarily strange. But it still interrupted them talking. And he wasn't necessarily an eavesdropper. But he's learned to make exceptions over time. And if she didn't know, what was the harm in him listening a bit? Maybe it was Al or Lola calling her back, and she'd yell for him to drive her off somewhere in seconds. Or maybe it was another friend of hers from school and he'd lose interest in the same amount of time. Either way, he was already leaning against the wall and couldn't be bothered by proper morals to get up and move.

He listened. He heard Neru say, turned and not facing him, "Yeah… Yeah; we went to the mall and everything. …Oh, yeah, it was pretty fun. Al and Lola came along, instead." She paused. "…_Nooo,_ we didn't _do_ anything." She stuttered, in a slightly raised voice, "I-It wasn't a-!" She lowered her voice again; Len could imagine her looking back to where he had walked out. What she whispered next was inaudible. Then, she said in a normal speaking voice, "And besides, I don't think…" Again, a vision of a nervous Neru entered Len's mind- he wasn't quite sure why. Neru wasn't really like that all the time, was she? She said, "…I'm not even sure. I think, that, maybe…" Len assumed whoever was on the other lines was filling the silences for Neru. "…Right now?" she said. "Uh… I can't exactly. Not _right_ now, no. Why…? Uh…" A brief beat that even Len could feel was passing by slowly for Neru. "He, uh… He brought me by his house. That's why."

'Okay,' Len thought. 'Who is she talking to? Who would shetalk to like that? So… Nervous. _Why_ would she talk to someone like that?' He thought as Neru was silent for a few seconds. Parents? Siblings he didn't know about?

Neru spoke again. It didn't occur to Len while lost again in his own thoughts, but the silence Neru had was shared by the caller, and as he pondered the situation grew steadily more uncomfortable. For Neru. For the caller, it became standard over the years for people to not know what to say. But she liked to talk, deep down. So she didn't mind that much. Though now, she'd have to admit; she was temporarily at a loss for words.

But she recovered soon enough. "Uh… Wow," the soft voice from the phone said into Neru's ear. "You work fast, don't you?"

An embarrassed Neru, seeing the comment coming, rushed to say, "No, no, no! It's not like that, not like that at all!"

"Well, that's what it sounds like it is," said the woman on the line. "So you're telling me he just took you by his house because you 'asked him nicely?' I don't usually get _too_ far into school rumors, but it almost local lore now about what Len's house is like; nobody's seen the place and he doesn't bring in visitors."

Neru couldn't help but shrug, as if the one she was talking to could see it. "I'm just that goo a friend, I guess."

"…Oooor, maybe he got tired of waiting on you to make the first move and brought you over because… You know. You're such 'good friends.' Eh?"

"Eep!" Neru covered her mouth before she made too loud a sound. She could feel the blood rushing to her face again. She exclaimed, "Don't say things like that, Luka!"

Len's eyes went wide- for multiple reasons- but he kept silent.

"It makes me nervous…" she went on to say. "And it's creepy when a teacher talks like that, too."

'…Luka…' He mouthed the name as it went through his head, but not so much as a whisper came out. 'What is she doing… Calling Neru about… About…' He stood perfectly still. '…' He still wasn't _absolutely sure_ what they were talking about. 'Damn it!' he thought in frustration. 'I wish I could hear what they both were saying…'

Neru spoke again; "It's nothing like that; nothing at all. We're just… Hanging around."

The pieces of what he'd heard were starting to crash together. His face remained composed, not that it mattered, but his thoughts were tripping over themselves. 'Luka…' he thought. '…You just can't stay out of people's personal lives. Can you.' He didn't dare look around the corner, but he thought a crazy thought. '…C…Could that mean that Neru…?'

His thoughts were broken off when Neru started talking again. He stopped, and listened. "No, that doesn't… I don't think that would be right. Because. Just because. That really doesn't sound like a good idea. _Especially_ not while in his house, still. Look… I'll tell you more about it on Monday. After class is over right- same time?" A pause, followed by a giggle. "_Yes_ I'll probably be catching a ride home with him that day. _No_, I'm _not_ going to do that, _thank-you_ very much." A few seconds went by. She laughed again. "Alright. Alright, bye." He heard the click of her phone clapping shut, and then her heard her voice; "Hey, Leeen!" she called out. "You can come back in; I'm done talking. Where are you?"

He waited a few moments, then turned the corner and came back in. He said, "You know, you don't have to yell. You could've, you know, come and _gotten_ me." Despite saying this, he counted his blessings. If she _had_ come after him, he'd have been caught eavesdropping on her. And as convincing as he was, there wasn't a smile or a joke in the world that he could use to charm himself out of a jam that tight. And, luckily for him, Neru didn't question his quick return.

"Oh, that's not fun," she said with a smile. Any trace of the color red in her complexion had been replaced by now with her natural tone. "Now, what were we talking about, again?"


	12. Chapter 12: Ending the Day

I actually have both sides of all the phone conversations written down, by the way. Somewhere. So if you ever think something doesn't make sense in one, remember; I have proof that it totally does.

I think.

Regardless, Enjoy. And ignore the two weeks it's been since the last chapter. About halfway through this one I think my style and emotion from writing BBLS came back to me in full force, though my update time from then has apparently taken an extended vacation. I won't lie- I actually don't like MMC anywhere _near_ as much as I liked BBLS. I'm actually think of, after I'm done, going back and reposting- while keeping this one up, of course- a reviewed and revised version. Slap on the 'Director's Cut' tag, or something, and redo a few plot points. But that'll be something I save for later; for now, let's focus on this little adventure.

**My Missed Chance – Chapter Twelve**

The day was finally winding down. The clock in the library room was blinking eight PM by the time either Len or Neru looked at it. They didn't notice the setting sun amidst their chatter, and enjoyed their evening together in deep conversation about trivial, everyday things. For the remainder of her time there, Neru didn't blush again, and Len never mentioned to her what he had heard- though he thought about it. Neru's phone, however, interrupted their talking with a rhythmic ring for the second time that day.

She answered it, at first begrudgingly. "Hello?" She said, with a quick change in tone, before Len was even half-way up, "Oh! Hey _mom_. H-How're you doing?" Len paused in his movements; Neru paused in her speech. The both listened. She said, surprised, "It is?" and looked up at the clock on the nearby table. "Aah! I'm sorry! I swear; I didn't even realize it was that late, honest!"

Len could hear a high-pitched voice coming in from the phone's speaker, and, reaching into his pocket, showed Neru his keys and mouthed, 'Should I get it started?'

She nodded at him. "Alright, alright," she said into the phone. "I'll be back in just a few minutes." Len started towards the door. "…What? Oh, uh, we're… At the mall, still. Yeah, they're still open. …It's quiet? We're, uh, outside. In the parking lot. And there're no people around out here." As he pulled the door closed behind him, Len heard her conversation continue on; "Well, I couldn't tell; it's been dark all day!"

A few minutes went by before Neru walked out of his front door. It was indeed dark outside, with any remaining sunlight fading under the horizon behind a haze of clouds. She walked around the front end of his car, opened the passenger door and sat down inside to join him.

She said, before he could talk, "Well, she's not mad, is the good thing."

"That's nice to know."

"Only I didn't tell her I went to your house, so we may need to fudge things a bit if she asks."

"Mm." He turned the keys in the ignition. Jokingly but dry, he said, "You know, liars never prosper."

"Oh, pffh." She buckled herself in. "I'm sure that you've lied to me about _something_ down the line."

He stopped for a moment, but then decided eavesdropping wasn't technically lying because she didn't ask. And he was willing to operate on a technicality. "That sounds like you're calling me a liar, Neru."

She smirked. "Why, I'd never."

He smirked back. "Come on," he said, "Let's get you back home. Try not to fall asleep this time."

Though he wasn't looking, he could tell she was rolling her eyes. "I can't help _that_," she said, sounding very much like a school girl. "And it's not raining anymore, so there."

"You've been awake while it rained before, I think."

"Well… It doesn't knock me out _every_ time, then… But it does make me tired, though. So _you're_ still the lying liar who lies."

"And you're the angel's blessing on Earth, eh?"

"Yup! That's right!" She poked him. "Liar."

"Oh please," he said. "Name one time when I've lied to you." He almost wanted to take saying that back, afraid that she'd actually come up with some time when they'd first met or when he had to get out of a situation- it would have to be something he'd completely forgotten about, because he honestly couldn't- eavesdropping aside- remember a time when he'd lied to Neru. Which would have normally said something about his character, if not for the now over-thought eavesdropping he'd just committed a few hours ago.

He tried again to push his silent trust-breaking out of his mind, and Neru said, thinking his question over, "Hmm… …Weeeell…" She snapped her fingers. "There was that time that-"

"Don't even bring up the time freshmen year," he said, knowing somehow exactly what she was going to say. "When we got onto that bus full of seniors, _you_ were lying with me."

"Nmm…" Neru pouted. "So then that doesn't count?"

"No. And besides;" he said, "I was lying to everyone _else_, not to you. Hell, you were even in on it, so it doubly doesn't count." He backed the car out of the driveway.

"Alright…" She thought seriously for a moment. She said, after a while, "Huh."

"Nothing else comes to mind?" he asked.

"Strangely, no."

"'Strangely?'" he said, checking the mirrors long after he should have. "Why's that? My honesty surprises you?"

"You just seem like the kind of guy who lies from time to time."

"Really," he said, turning the car so it lined up with the road; again, something he should have done earlier. "I thought you said I was the kind of guy who girls jump to be with."

"I guess that some girls just like liars, then." Len chuckled. So did she. She said, "Maybe it… Adds to the fun, for them."

Len glanced at her, but she was looking out of her window now, watching homes go by as they left his behind. "If it'll help," he said to her, "I'll try to keep up a quota of lies-per-day for you."

She replied only half-listening now, "Mm…" She actually _was_ getting tired, now that she paid attention to herself. Her eyes slowly closed to a semi-open state, but she managed to stay awake.

There were a few seconds where all that was heard was the low rumble of the car's wheels on pavement. Len asked, "Are you getting tired again?

"…Noo…" She said, "…Yes. But I'm still awake." She yawned.

"You won't be for long." Len said, "All that talking really wore you out then, eh?"

"I think it actually did," she said, scratching at her eye. "But I think I can make it the rest of the car ride without falling over in the seat." She rested her head fully up against the side of the window. Len noted that the scene was somewhat familiar to him. She continued on to say, "But if I do… I'll be sure to use your lap as a pillow, or something…"

Len nearly jerked his head away from watching the road. Had she just said that? Or was he just misreading things, like he must have with the phone call. Which he had to have misread. Nothing else even happened the rest of the time that they talked. Nobody has a conversation like that, with actual intentions, and goes on like it never happened. Right. He had nothing to worry about.

Unless he was wrong, of course. Or right, depending on how you looked at it.

Neru was silent for the next few minutes after that. Len's subconscious, in an attempt to drive his thoughts away from what he'd eavesdropped upon, pointed out to him about how Neru had seemingly progressed from one of the most talkative people he knew, to one of the sleepiest, quietest people he'd ever drove somewhere. In general, this didn't help. Not just because he'd never really drove too many people anywhere before- Rin once or twice, Miku three times- but also because he considered himself trope savvy and girls being suddenly quiet around him didn't help bring his mind off of possible-maybe-not crushes that he's probably just imagining. Best not to think about it.

But in the dead silence and continuous hum of turning tires, the soft, pleasant sound of Neru softly, sleepily breathing broke through to him, and he thought about it anyway. Because if what he _thought_ was true, actually turned out to _be_ true…

Then what in the hell was he doing.

He looked over at Neru again, the car stopped at a red light on the highway he'd just turned on to. She was still leaning against the window, eyes still closed.

…Life could become very awkward for him now. Very, very quickly.

He drove on, heading down the long, empty asphalt road to Neru's home. Cars drove by in the opposite direction, and every few seconds, the headlights on one passing by would illuminate the darkness and Len would fight himself not to look to his right. He didn't like not having all the details. It made him feel… Vulnerable.

He looked to his right.

And for some reason, now, so did Neru.

When they arrived, he saw she was still sound asleep in his passenger seat, not moving since she drifted off. Though she hadn't fallen into his lap while driving. And he actually wasn't sure how he felt about that. He gently nudged her awake, saying, lowly, but not quite a whisper, "Neru. We're here."

She inched open her eyes, and looked up over at him. It was much darker than before, and now there was no mistaking it- it was night, and she knew for certain that she hadn't made it anywhere _near_ curfew time. But she was still too out of herself to think much into that- not that she normally would. She didn't worry about whatever possible consequences were waiting for her on the other side of her front door. Instead, she, with half-open eyes, a smile, and in a voice Len found unbelievably cutesy, said, "Thanks gain, Len," and opened her door.

"No problem," he said back. "I had a nice time."

She turned back after stepping out, her golden ponytail hanging in front of her shining face, and said, "So it wasn't a waste of a Saturday for you, then?"

He smiled. "No. I'd say it was a day well spent."

She smiled back, and brushed the hair out from in front of her face, around her ear. "I'm glad to hear that." The stability in her voice made it sound like she was fully awake again, though her eyes wearily told otherwise. "It didn't go _exactly_ as I thought it would; but I agree. I had a nice time, too."

"Have a good night," he said.

She nodded with a wink, and closed the door.

As Len drove back to the featured silence of his home, his mind filled the lack of noise with a torrent of deep thoughts. He wondered more about his situation. He wondered what he should do. He wondered if it mattered. In the end, when he was pulling back up to his house and when he at last pulled his keys out of his ignition, he decided not to worry about it.

He'd gotten out of tough jams before. He could handle it all on Monday. Just like everything else.


	13. Chapter Interlude: Sleepless Night

An extra set-up chapter, I suppose to make up for all the slow updating. Thirteen itself is partly done. But I expect because of me saying this it will take months years decades never mind.

Enjoy.

(By the way, I totally want to use this chapter's title as a One Shot name now)

**My Missed Chance – Chapter Twelve-Thirteen Interlude**

Len sat there, in his bed on Sunday morning, staring at the ceiling fan turning slowly and hanging a handful of feet above him. A lot had changed in the little that had happened that weekend. Or would be changing. He wasn't worried about it- he rarely was about anything these days- but he didn't like not knowing what he was going to do about things. About what others were going to do. It made him nervous. Which could pass off as being worried, but if Len was ever asked about it, he'd be quick to deny. He secretly liked the image that most people said they had of him; the image of a loner, or even the image of a playboy- which he still didn't fully understand. But it wasn't what other people he went to school with thought about him that was pestering him; it was what Neru thought about him, and about what he thought about her. And the fact he didn't know the former, well; that made the latter much harder to pin down.

He told himself that he'd take care of everything on Monday. Well, Monday was tomorrow. And his lack of a plan took two hours of sleep away from him the previous night. He didn't know what he should do, or if he should do anything. Did he even have options? Would he even do anything if he came up with one?

He sighed to the silence. Len rarely, _rarely_ found himself wanting someone to talk to. Only on his worst days, or his strangest days. And today and yesterday counted and strange days.

He only hoped that, tomorrow, when he did whatever it was he ultimately decided to do, it wouldn't end up being one of his worst days.


	14. Chapter 13: Asking Around

You have no idea how much this chapter infuriated me. No, I mean it; I wasn't just sitting around for a month and a half. I wrote, and rewrote, and rewrote, and _rewrote_ again. I have currently sitting around **Nine** full drafts, ready for posting should my muse have fancied them. Add on top of that school? _And_ other writing for God knows what? Ugh. Sincere apologies for the delay.

*sigh* …Whatever; it's here now. And I'm in the groove so- I'll just shut up before I give myself a deadline I can't hope to keep.

Enjoy, if you're even still following this.

**My Missed Chance – Chapter Thirteen**

"…So…" Len said, after a long and awkward silence. "You're… _Sure_ that she hasn't said anything? Ever?"

"No… I mean, y-yeah," the pale white-haired girl sitting next to him answered. "She hasn't… I mean I don't _think_ she has, anyway…"

It was Monday, the following morning, only hours after Neru's weekend spent in Len's company. Having driven to school alone that day- Neru being either sick or, for once, on time- Len took the silence he rarely received to think more into how his day would likely go. In a mood uncharacteristic of him, Len was nervous that morning- which is strange because whenever he'd normally think about his prospective and non-existent love life, he'd become more frustrated than anything. For more than one reason, in the past. At some point during his drive, he began to sweat at the thought of what would happen when he arrive; would he find Neru waiting for him, as she usually did? What would he say if she was? For once, in another uncharacteristic turn, he had no idea about what he was going to say.

Thankfully for his nerves, however, he didn't need to say anything. Neru, apparently actually sick that day, wasn't there at school at all. Given some extra time to work with, he set about what he told himself was confirming his newfound suspicions. In reality, he was more likely to have been purposefully festering his own feelings rather than aiming to shoot down hers. That just wasn't the kind of person he actually was. To friends. That he liked. But he wouldn't be telling anybody that. Probably not even a 'special someone.' Not that he had one.

He made a mental note to change that. And then he promptly ignored it, to calm himself down.

When the first class of the day began, however- as always, Megurine Luka's- Len remembered the reason he was nervous that day in the first place. Remembering Neru's phone call with Luka as he walked into the pink-haired teacher's classroom, Len threw all remnants of a plan out the window, turned on his heel, and walked back out before Luka could even have looked up to see it was him. After a few moments of very rushed thought, however, he took a breath and walked back in. Taking a seat in the very, very back row of desks- while Luka was, apparently, texting- Len glanced up in the direction of Gumi sitting next to his now empty seat, and saw her just in time to catch sight of her short green hair flowing to the side in such a way that told him, yes; she _was_ looking at you just before you looked up at her. He decided to ignore that, and then looked over to his right.

When he sat down, he had either subconsciously put himself into a good position or that day luck was on his side. Sitting in the desk next to his, quieter even than on normal days, the pale and paper-white-haired Yowane Haku shifted a bit in place to sit up straighter. Len knew that Haku was, supposedly, on good terms with Neru; so, hoping Neru would talk to her friends about this sort of thing- 'That's what teenage girls do, right?'- and deciding talking to Luka about it when he A., shouldn't really think this or have a clue to her feelings- 'Right?'- in the first place and B., has been faithfully avoiding her like the plague so far today _because_ he had a clue via hearing her phone call, probably wasn't a good idea, he resigned to chatting up Miss Yowane with questions to see if he could find a firm confirmation about her maybe-real-maybe-not feelings for probably him- and, by extension, his own. It was a resignation, but not because he didn't like Haku. He just didn't know her that well. The reason for this probably being her having ghost-white skin and hair at sixteen and being shunned by a large amount of the student body. He found out from one of Neru's many long talking sprees that she was suffering from early-age Albinism, and that was about all he knew about her- which wasn't a lot to base a potential friendship on. He wondered how her Albinism was going for her. Before they started talking, he considered asking.

"Hey Haku; does Neru talk to you about who she has crushes on?"

But he'd decided to stick with being overly blunt and tactless instead.

After a small jolt, she answered. "Um… N-No, I… Uh…" She cleared her throat. "No, she… _Usually_ doesn't… I think…"

"Usually?" Len asked, getting down to business while Haku remained in a staggering level of confusion. "Has she said anything to you… Recently?"

"Uh…" She slowly started to shake her head. "No…?"

A silence followed, and that portion of the conversation ended with the situation Len found himself to be in now.

"Hmm." He thought for a few seconds, almost forgetting who he was talking to. Completely ready now to move on to talking to somebody else or to stop talking entirely, he didn't hear her the first time when Haku asked him a question.

"Um… Len?" she repeated.

"…Hmm?" He turned to look back at her. "Yes?"

"Why do… Why do you want to know in the first place?"

"…Oh. Uh." Fitting for the rush in which he approached her, he hadn't thought of anything to say to _her_ either, about _why_ he wanted to know enough to ask. He looked at her blankly, now in the same situation he talked to her to avoid being in with Luka. "…No reason?"

"Mm…" Haku said. Breaking through her, at this point, innate social awkwardness, she added, with more of a mumble than she intended, "That doesn't sound quite right…" He drew a mental blank that extended far into the corners of his mind. "…Len…"

A few seconds went by. He coughed twice.

And a thin paper airplane, flying back from the front of the room, landed gently on his desk. Confused, he picked it up and turned in on its side; on its wing were the words 'open me!' in light green ink. He looked up in time, as usual, to see Gumi's head swivel around to the front. He sighed and unfolded the airplane.

In the same twirly handwriting but in a darker green than before, it said, 'Hey,' followed by a drawn winking smile. 'I've never seen you talking to Haku before… Whatcha' taking 'bout? :D'

He looked up. Haku peeked over curiously, and asked, "…What's that?"

He sighed and shook his head, writing his response. Refolding paper into the airplane he got it in, he tossed it with precision as he said, "Someone being nosy."

Haku watched as it flew back to Gumi, landing next to her desk on the floor. She leaned over and, with the discreteness of breaking glass, picked it up off of the ground. Haku kept looking long enough to see her turn and pout at Len. She looked back in time at him to see his smile back at it.

The day went on and ended uneventfully. The final few classes Len had he did not share with anyone else personally 'close' to Neru. Which surprised him. Here he thought she was friends with everybody.

When the final bell struck across the building and classroom doors opened, the vast majority of the students inside left for home via buses and cars and walking. For a moment, Len considered joining them. But he decided he wanted to know too badly, and stayed- tomorrow, if she was there with him- and he knew she would be; Neru _never_ missed two days in a row- how would he possibly ask around?

'Ask around…' he thought. 'Like a two year old, or something.' He grumbled in his head. 'I feel pathetic.'

Standing just in front of the closed door to Megurine Luka's empty-other-than-her classroom, Len thought forward a bit and tried to come up with what he'd tell her when she asked him… Whatever it was she was going to ask him. Probably the same thing that Haku had asked him. Only with enough nerve to say that she could tell that he liked her. Or maybe she'd play along with him, and ask why he was so suddenly interested in his good friend's personal life. He wouldn't have an answer for that question, if she did. He needed to be sure, in any case, not to let her know that he had 'overheard' her calling Neru, so he would have to come up with _something_ to say as a replacement story. Maybe he'd play along with her playing along, say he wanted to help Luka help Neru get together with _whoever_ it was that was making her blush to herself nowadays, wink wink, nudge nudge. Only without the winking and nudging, because it's hardly playing along if it's obvious that you're faking, and he doesn't want it to be _too_ obvious. Even if she'd likely know anyway, regardless of how he said it.

Or maybe the whole damn thing was a misunderstanding on his part. Maybe she was just teasing Neru over the phone in a very specific way that would urge responses that, taken out of context like when, for example, they are overheard, would sound suspiciously like the way someone talks about someone that they like a bit more than liking he must have been out of his mind to even think up that sentence. This was Luka he was talking about. Yes; she teased people. But only when she was trying to push something in a certain direction. To nudge something one way, or to effect a conversation with undertones of being casually less than it actually was. If asked about it, she'd probably say she was being persuasive. Really, she was actually pretty aggressive- in a nice way- when she worked her cupid magic. A long phone call would just be her slowly- or quickly- moving a conversation one way so that, suddenly, whoever she was talking to would want to do something to advance their 'personal life.'

'Hmm.' Len refocused his thoughts. He was out of options. And maybe he just liked making trouble for himself. 'And hey,' he thought, 'She _did_ say she'd be here to talk to about this sort of thing with me. Though, maybe…' he took a deep breath, 'Not quite like this.'

He took a step up closer, and slowly opened the door with a knock.


	15. Chapter 14: Request

We're not quite done yet, but I'd say we're at least _approaching_ the final stretch. So I guess at this point I'm just trying to have fun with the (*fingers crossed*) final fleshing out of our wonderful, wonderful cast.

Also, I'm hoping that maybe I'll be done with this before the New Year rolls around. The looks of things make me think that I may be able to pull this off. Barely. _Maybe._

Enjoy. Hopefully worth the wait.

**My Missed Chance – Chapter Fourteen**

Still sitting in the same chair as when the last of her classes ended, Luka Megurine looked down onto the lit screen of her new and pinker-than-ever cell phone. It looked the same as the last one otherwise, but it was new nevertheless. Every few seconds she'd have to press a key to stop the screen from fading to dark as she looked at it, but other than this quick periodic motion, her mind was focused on the content of the message she had typed out onto it. After every reread and quick word change, she'd linger her finger over the send button and try to force herself to press it; when she didn't, she'd do the same to the delete key and try to convince herself to get rid of it. This was how she had spent the last few minutes since she had the room to herself. Just like yesterday, and last week, and, if she thought about it, really, she should probably count the week before. She'd hidden it well, she felt, not letting it interfere with her personal life much. Up until today, where she had barely said anything other than the minimum. She tried lately to just put it aside; she bought the new phone in the first place, along with registering it under a new number, in an attempt to just forget completely. That was her hope; to just move on and forget. But she didn't. And she was sitting here again today. Luka had memorized the number the first night she had given it to her, so not putting it on her new phone's contact list didn't help her much. All getting a new phone really did was stop anyone else from calling her that knew the number of the old one. Yes; she didn't have many choices for when it came to totally leaving this trouble behind. She knew what her few choices were, by heart. And by her heart, she knew she'd regret every last one of them.

She placed the phone, still active with the message on-screen, on the top of her desk and sighed. Leaning back in her chair, she stared at the room's ceiling and ran one hand through her barely-brushed hair, breaking even more so the already unprofessional look she had that day, in terms of hairstyle. She hadn't opted for it; she simply let life catch up to her on what was unfortunately a day when she had to go to work. She could have called in a sick day. She _should_ have called in a sick day. But she didn't; though, thankfully for her, nobody mentioned to her that she looked a little off. Maybe they just didn't notice. Or maybe they did and decided that maybe that morning she was just running late, or maybe she must have wanted a change of pace or some such. And, in a way, she did want a change of pace. At the least, she wanted a change of _something._

She sighed again, with even more exasperated exhaustion being evident. She wondered how it would go over if she told anybody- not necessarily her students; though she was sure they'd _try_ to help. But anyone, really, about the fact at hand; that Cupid was having relationship problems. The problem being the lack of one in the form she wanted it to be in. She sat in a gnawing silence. She wished _she_ had a Cupid to run to.

She wasn't sure exactly it was that had happened, only that, at some point, she realized that she wasn't happy with her friendship with a friend being only a friendship. And instead of following the advice she had given so many times to so many others, she simply stopped going to meet them and avoided them altogether. Stopping without a word was probably a little mean. Getting a new phone was likely a little excessive. But she still didn't call or apologize for suddenly disappearing, and she didn't have another friend tell them an excuse to cover for her absence. For the first time in a long time, Luka was feeling like a troubled teenage girl. And it _really_ made her wish that she had a Cupid to run to as well.

She thought for a bit about the relationship-troubled teenagers she'd helped in the past few years of being here. Fear in or about a relationship was, unsurprisingly, one of the main things people came to her about. More often than not, she'd helped them enough to forge an actual friendship- or at least to solve their problem. But she hadn't ever really had a problem, not since she was about the same age as the students she helped, that was similar to theirs. The common problem was that they were too afraid to move forward- she had always, for years and years, been assertive in her personal life. That was just how she was; it wasn't in her nature to wait too long or to let things happen when she could make things happen. That nature of confidence was probably the reason that people started coming to her in the first place. Or maybe because she was nosy; that also may have played a part in it. Miku, she specifically remembered, came to her for help because she had heard of a few others who said good things about her. She was one of the first- 'One of,' because, honestly, it had been so long for Luka since the first time she gave advice and pushed people together that she couldn't remember who was before who. But Miku stood out in her mind. If not because of how she turned out, then because of how she started.

'She was such a nice little girl,' Luka thought, 'when she first arrived here…' She often wondered, when her mind came to the subject, why it was that Miku turned from so sweet to so sour. The gossip of the day- brought back from the grave after her latest escapade, which was still hot on the tongues of certain persons though cold on most others- said it was because of Kaito. But Luka didn't buy that story. That couldn't be it- not entirely. _Nobody_ made that drastic a personality change after being dumped. The criminally insane don't even do that. But Luka never found out, because Miku never came back to talk to her after that and she transferred out of her class for the rest of her years there. Sometimes when she thought about it, Luka blamed herself now and then. It was her first and largest mistake in the game of playing matchmaker- she only worked on one side of the potential couple, not both. The entire time, she didn't even speak to Kaito once, really, about perhaps considering Miku. Instead, she rushed the girl into something she probably was better off not getting into her first year. People would later say that she only wanted to be with Kaito then because he was popular, so she'd be popular by proxy, or some such. But Luka, once again, knew better than to believe the general consensus of rumors. She wasn't sure if it ever got out that it was Luka who pushed her into it; maybe it did, maybe it didn't. If it didn't, and Miku never told anybody that Luka was the one helping her along… Then she wouldn't be sure what to think about that. Maybe she would have seen it then as a sign of childishness; keeping all the blame for a relationship's failure on herself when she knew it wasn't _just_ her fault. She wouldn't see it that way now. Today, she would at least see it as more than taking the fall and hiding an embarrassed face behind a wall of fury; because she was hiding Luka's face behind that wall as well. If it did, whether Miku told anybody or not, it didn't seem to have much of an effect on how many people came to her. She still saw it as a mistake, though, lack of consequences aside. She did better the next time, and things worked out for everybody. But still…

…Miku was so much nicer, at the beginning. But now Luka was just distracting herself. She tapped a button on her sitting phone and the screen flashed back on, typed message still waiting for her to decide to send or delete. Silently reading over it once more from her chair, she wondered again what had happened to herself. Every day, it used to be, Luka would go to meet her after work. And every day, they'd stay together well into the night. Why couldn't Luka bring herself to go anymore? Had Cupid finally run out of arrows?

She finished reading, and after a few seconds went by, she heard a knock on the room's door. Glancing at the clock, she saw it was the usual time for Neru to come by- she forgot, however, that Neru hadn't come to school that day. "Come on in," she said, and the door opened. Expecting Neru or someone similar, her face showed appropriate surprise when the blond Len walked in. "…Len?" she questioned, as he slowly entered and closed the door behind him. Straightening herself from the position she was sitting in, she asked, "What are you… Uh." She coughed. "What can I help you with? Did you need something?"

He silently made his way over to a desk nearby her own. Sitting down, he looked up for a few seconds at the door, and said, without turning to look at her right away, "Luka… You said that, you'd be willing to help me out with… Things, right?" He turned to look at her now. "That last time I was here- with you and Gumi?- you said before you left that you'd try to help me if I asked you to, right?" He scratched the back of his head, in a nervous way Luka knew to be unlike him. "Would you… Still be willing to do… That?"

"…You…" She blinked. "…You want me to give you… Relationship help?" Luka asked, nearly disbelieving. Len nodded, almost solemnly, to her great surprise. She had meant what she said, of course, when she offered to give him help in the future. But, in all honesty, she never thought that he'd actually come back for it. She said, "Y…Yes. Yes! Of course, of course; I'd be glad to help you, Len. What exactly did you need help _with_, though? Do you, uh, need help finding someone, or, or, did you have someone in mind but need help getting that push over? Can't get their attention? Can't get them a gift? I've got enough experience with this sort of thing, Len; I think I'd be able to get a handle on whatever it is you need…" Yes; she hadn't expected him to come back for this kind of help. And though she was glad he was, at the same time, she was worried. She didn't know _who_ it was that Len came to her to get help about; and if she wasn't _extraordinarily_ lucky, she would have very, very large problems in a moment. The last thing she needed right now was to have to try to convince anybody to stop being in love with someone and start being in love with somebody else. Not that she'd ever _do_ something like that, never. But she'd surely face some major problems if… "Does offering advice mean I get to finally know the name of the fabled object of your desire?" she asked. "You never told me who it was, last time…"

Len shook his head. "I'd rather not talk to anyone about who that was, if that's alright."

"Well, it'll be fairly difficult for me to help if I don't know who it is…"

"I don't mean who I came to talk to you about today," he said. "I'd just _prefer_," he said, with particular emphasis, "Not to bring up what was bothering me before. Or who."

"…Oh?" Luka said, catching on. "Then… I guess what you mean is that it's a _new_ girl, now?"

He nodded.

"Well," she said, "I hope you don't mind if I guess the name of the mystery girl, then. I'll do this in my head, of course; I know how much you hate it when people pry. Unless, you want to tell me right away…?"

Len said, "I think that you probably already know her name, Luka."

"I love free hints, Len, but I know a lot of people's names." She pretended to give it deep and sarcastic thought while she focused on keeping her composure. "Hmm… Someone I know, someone I know… How many letters does her name have in it?"

"It's Neru."

A few seconds went by silent. "…Well." Luka said. "It's no fun if you tell me the answer." Her mind stopped sweating.

"I was hoping you could help me out by, uh…" Len coughed. "By maybe finding out for me… You know…"

Luka raised an eyebrow and held back a white-teeth smile with a small smirk. She was raving inside, when she said, "Find out… What, Len?"

"…Luka…"

"You know I can't help you if I don't know what help it is you want me to give."

"I'll sound like a narcissist."

"We're all narcissists here, Len."

He sighed and put his head in his hands. He looked up, avoided initial eye contact, and said, "I would greatly appreciate it, if… If you could please find out for me who Neru likes, and…" At last looking up, he finished, "And if it is me."

Luka smiled brightly. "Of course I can find out for you, Len. And, of course, as an addition to that…" She feigned a cough. "I'll be trying my best to keep you two, as lovebirds, together."

"Right, well, that's all I needed to say," Len quickly stood and made for the door. "Thank you very much; I will see you tomorrow." Putting his hand on the door and opening it, he stepped out and paused. Before he turned around, he double-checked that the hallways were clear. He said, "…Thank you, Luka," and closed the door behind him.

Luka smiled for minutes afterward, and did nothing else. When she finally remembered that she had her cell phone out and ready on her desk, she picked it up. Looking over the message one last time, she didn't hesitate when she hit delete. Nor did she hesitate when she dialed in the phone number she had been ready to send that text to. Two rings went by, and a female's voice answered. "Hello?"

"Miki," Luka started. "Whatever you're doing, stop. Tonight- Freedom Dance. Late. You, me, our empty wallets, and more tequilas than are absolutely necessary."

"L-Luka?" Miki's voice didn't give away the smile she had glowing. "I-It's been a few weeks, almost, are you-?"

"I hope you're aware," she said, stopping her, "'No' isn't an answer I'm willing to accept. But I'm asking anyway, Miki, because I'm a nice person like that." She was giddy, didn't fully know what she was doing, and her hand was nearly shaking from her nerves. But she hid it well, she felt. She asked, "Would you like to go out with me tonight?"

There was no delay. "Yes," Miki answered. "Yes, I very much would."

They spoke for a little afterward, and Luka had the pleasure of sitting back in her chair while being truly happy. She thought to herself, 'Well, Len, looks like I _owe_ you a date with Neru, now.' She put her phone away and stood. 'You just got me a date of my own.'


	16. Chapter 15: Build Up

Just sat down and finished this one; Chapter 16 will be up in like, ten seconds, too. So if you somehow catch this in the short amount of time there will be between the moment it shows up on the list and the moment 16 follows it, well… Just, uh, hit refresh a few times when you finish reading. Or something.

And I take back what I said before in the last chapter; I'd say we are just about starting the final stretch… Now. Three more's my estimate. But I could see four more happening, as well.

Enjoy the final parts of the ride.

**My Missed Chance – Chapter Fifteen**

When Len finally arrived at his car, he found it sitting lonelily in an almost completely empty parking lot, free now of talking teenagers taking too long to leave. Save for a few of what he assumed were teachers' cars a fair distance away, he had the general area to be by himself in. And so he took this time alone to sit down, in his car, and slowly begin to hyperventilate. He either had the slowest reaction time to potentially awkward situations of any student in recorded history, or the sane part of his mind had only just caught up to him to say that, yes, there is a rather large chance that this could end badly. How was Luka going to find out? She probably already knew the answer and just really liked to mess with people's heads like this, but what was she going to actually say to Neru? How would he know when Luka had spoken to her- when _was_ Luka going to talk to her? Would she get her to make the first move on him? Len didn't like this- he preferred to have a situation under control. Otherwise he tended to get worried. Even if there may not actually be anything to get so worried _about_, he still did. Because he would almost always end up thinking too much about things.

And he was definitely thinking too much now.

Neru awoke to her miss-set alarm at around the same time Len was sitting down in his car. She grumpily hit the snooze button and turned over to look at the time. She didn't remember _why_ she had set it, and she definitely didn't remember why she had set it for then. She couldn't even remember, really, the last time she _had_ set her alarm clock. Months, surely. Maybe even more. She was recovering from sickness; she didn't need loud noises in her ear. It may have been annoying on any other day, but waking up to a blazing alarm when the day before you found it hard to move? 'God…' she thought. 'I hate being sick.'

And she most certainly did. What she hated most about being sick, more than the sneezing, coughing, and the hurting when she moved, was she was missing a day of time when she'd otherwise be at school. If she were to tell anyone that particular reason, she'd phrase it differently, of course. She'd have to say that it was mainly because she'd miss a day with Len- a day with Len after being with him in his house. She'd have to say it was because she really wanted to talk to Luka about how she spent that day with Len that ended with her being with him in his house. That she wanted really to talk to her in person without the dying pressure that maybe, oh, just maybe, Len might hear a word or two out of place, and suddenly know how she felt about him. How she hoped more than anything that he felt about her.

She rolled back into bed.

It was a good thing, then, that she wasn't going to be telling anyone she missed not being at school. Because she would really prefer not to have to tell anybody any of that.

Her cell phone, on the same countertop next to her bed and sitting right next to it, too, started ringing in such a way that made her think her alarm was on again and was going back off just as she closed her eyes. As she reached for the snooze button once more, however, she saw its light and soft vibration, and jumped from her covers to pick it up. Without thinking much to check the caller ID- not that it would have helped her any- she answered it.

"Hello?" she asked. "Luka?"

Len started his car and began to drive. He let down his side's window and felt a burst of wind come through that began to carry itself through and past every strand of his hair. He needed to think. No, he was thinking already. He needed more than anything to _stop_ thinking. Nothing was out of control today, nothing was going awry. He had no real reason to be so suddenly nervous.

…So then why _was_ he so suddenly jittery, so suddenly nervous? It's not like he had asked Luka to tell Neru everything; that he had asked to tell her he had a sudden crush on her. He didn't even tell _Luka_ everything.

…Right?

'Christ,' Len thought, 'I can't even think straight. Calm down,' he told himself without doing so, 'Just calm down and think clearly. Oh, no, wait, don't think. Gah!' He shook his head in frustration. 'I'm making this into more than it is. Just concentrate on driving, Len…' he thought as his car slowly began to speed up. 'Focus. Just get home, sit down, and relax a bit; you'll be fine, and nothing will be wrong.'

Yes. That was what he'd do. He'd simply go home, take a seat, breathe deeply, and stop freaking out so much. Did he have Luka's number? Did Luka have his? No, he didn't think she did… No- he needed to stop. He needed to stop worrying before something big really did get out of hand.

"Neru," Luka's always-charming voice came out over the speaker of the girl's cell phone. "I'm glad you're up. Or were you already? I hope my calling didn't disturb you!"

Neru said, after carefully considering her words, "Uh, no, Luka; you were just a _little_ too late to be what woke me up…"

"Well good, glad to hear it!" Her voice was actually more cheery than usual. But Neru didn't ask why. "I hope you're feeling better; I know how bad being sick can be."

"Yeah, yeah…" She sat up on the edge of her bed. If she were just a bit taller, her feet would be able to reach to floor from there. But she wasn't, so they didn't. "I've been resting a lot, so I think I may be back at school tomorrow."

"Well, great! That's excellent news, and I'm glad to hear you're feeling well!"

"Uh… Luka?"

"Yes, Neru?"

"Not that I don't like talking to you, but…" Her voice forced up a yawn for effect. "I'm a little tired, and… Um… Is there something you needed?"

"Oh, well, yes; I suppose I did want to ask you a few things. You know, if you have the time."

There were a few seconds of silence on the line.

"…Luka?"

"Yes Neru?"

"…Are you… Planning on asking me anytime soon, or…?

"~Oh. I don't know," Luka said in such a way that it gave Neru a clear image of a shrug and a sarcastic smile. "Maybe I should just let you get more rest for the night. I'm sure Len wouldn't mind the wait; I can just ask you tomorrow."

At the mention of Len's name Neru jumped in place and her eyes shot wide open. "Wait, Len? What did Len want- did he ask about me?"

"Well now, Neru, you sure sound wide awake now…" The smile was near-audible in her voice. "I _suppose_ I could ask you now. You know. If it's not a problem for you, or anything."

Anything Len related wasn't going to be a problem for Neru. To talk about, anyway. "Sure, yes, please," she said, "Whatever it is, let's hear it."

The road leading from Len's house to school was, like most days at this time, clear. Len's Mercedes was the only sight breaking the gray pavement for a mile, it seemed, in either direction. And, like most days when he got the chance to drive along an empty road, he slowly began, on a subconscious level, to press down bit by bit on the gas pedal, speeding up to a few digits over what was likely the legal maximum. The road was dead; he'd have nothing to worry about. And he needed to stop worrying. Tomorrow, he told himself, he'd go to school, just like normal, maybe even taking Neru along with him, if she was feeling better, catch Luka alone, and get his answer. And then…

'…And then what?' Len tried thinking ahead but found himself stopped right before he speaks to Luka. He… Didn't actually _know_ what he was going to do when he found out yes or no. 'Christ,' he thought. He didn't even know how he'd react to the answer. _Either_ answer. He'd have to do _something_ when Luka told him… Whatever it was she would end up telling him. 'Oh, God,' he thought. What if she said yes? What if she said no? '…What _if_ she said no?' he thought, his mind slowing down. That would certainly make driving her around awkward, depending on how Luka phrased it. More awkward. But if she said yes… He wouldn't have to worry about that, then. He'd have a whole new set of problems to worry about.

'…Problems.' He thought about the word he used. Would it… Really be a problem. Now that he thought about it… No. He definitely wouldn't mind if Neru returned hi fancy. E wouldn't mind that at all.

He slowed his car back down to a speed reasonably within legal limits.

E really needed to stay… Solid. Yes, solid seemed like as good a word as any. He was calming down now, anyway. But he couldn't think very straight, still. That was a problem, surely. And he still didn't know what her answer would be. And he was _very_ worried about hoe Luka would find out for sure. Or 'officially,' whichever it was. So he still had a few things to be worried about. But at least his driving was straight.

Which was good, because the first other car he found passing on the road was a police cruiser.

"Neru," Luka said, "How many days, do you think, have we spent after school discussing how to cure your lack of a love life?"

"Um…" Neru answered, "A lot?"

"That sounds about right. And how much closer, really, have we gotten to you getting your first highschool boyfriend?" Luka added, "Which, by the way, I still think you're lying about."

"Uh…"

"You're still single, let's put it that way." Luka crossed her legs from where she was sitting. This could either be a long convincing or a quick chat. She said, "I'm thinking it's about time that we changed that relationship status of yours. And, uh, just so you know, I'm not the only one…"

Neru sat attentively. "Wait, what? Who-"

"I have to ask you; how serious are you about being with him?" There was a pause while she let it sink in. "If I said, 'last chance,' today, would you be able to get up and ask him? To get up and tell him?" Another pause on her part. "'Last chance,' is strictly hypothetical of course. But the question still stands." Luka asked her, "Do you really want to be with Len, Neru?"

Seconds went by silent with no response. At last, she answered. "…Yes."

Luka smiled and her mind went to planning. "Okay then," she said, "I'm going to need Len's phone number."

"Len's…" Neru questioned. "But… Why?"

"Because Neru?"

"Yes?"

"I was lying when I said that 'last chance' was hypothetical. So I'll be needing two things from you now; Len's cell phone number, Neru, and your attention as I plan this out."


	17. Chapter 16: Set Up

It's shorter, and, in a way, something that could have been attached to chapter 15. But it would have felt tacked on had I done that, and I feel it deserves to stand alone based on story importance.

This point has taken far, far too long to get to. In real time, not story-wise.

Next chapter I have fun with it all. Give this thing a _reason_ to be rated T.

Enjoy.

(Of course, not _too_ many reasons… Maybe.)

**My Missed Chance – Chapter Sixteen**

Len pulled up and slowly parked his car into the driveway in front of his house. He took a few seconds longer than normal after stopping the engine to grab his things and step out. School bag slung over his right shoulder, he opened his car's door and slunked out to a stand. Taking only a few steps forward towards the front door of his home, he stopped as his cell phone began to ring. Taking it out of his back pocket, he looked at it for a few seconds before deciding on whether or not he should answer. Who did he know that even had his number? Neru? She was the only one he could think of. And she wouldn't be calling him _now_, of all times.

…Would she?

Len dropped his bag on the ground and flipped his phone open. No, that wasn't Neru. He didn't remember everyone's number by heart, but he'd at least recognize it if you showed it to him. And he'd never seen this one before in his life.

'…Ah, what the hell.' He answered it. "Hello?"

"Len!" a preppy voice he recognized responded. "Well, look at that. I was worried you might not answer."

"…Luka?" he guessed correctly. "…How… Who gave you my cell phone number?"

"Really now, that's how you greet me Len? And here I thought-"

"No, seriously, who told you?"

"Neru; I was just talking with her." Luka sat back in her chair and started at her nails. Her usual way for keeping calm during the last stages of planning was, while alone, to bite them. But she didn't feel the need to do that this time. She said, "I thought maybe you'd like to know how our talk ended up going."

"Jesus- I thought you'd at least wait until tomorrow to tell me," Len said, stepping forward and placing his free hand on his forehead. "You're just going to drop this on me now? I don't even think it's been an hour since I talked to you."

"I'm not a fan of wasting time. You're the third person, I think, that I've called in the last thirty minutes, and I've gotten a lot done lately. Speaking of stuff done, I think I have your answer, Len."

"Sorry, I'm just now getting to that you asked Neru for my phone number- emphasis on my. Did you just slip that into the conversation or how did that go?"

"No, I just asked after I got her to profess her love for you to me."

"Oh, I- what."

"You've got a date tonight, Len, and so do I, so let's keep pace and try to get things going now."

"I-"

"I've picked out the perfect place for you to meet her at- you know where her house is I assume, what with you driving her there all the time? Well, I'm sure you've noticed this, but a short distance behind her neighborhood, there's a point where you hit mountains…"

"Luka-"

"…And a little ways up the road on one there's a cliff parking lot with a just _fantastic_ view of the city area…"

"Just-"

"…And so I told Neru that I'd have you meet her there and, really, I'd hate to see the girl be disappointed- she's only 16, after all, so-"

"Luka!" Len finally stopped her.

"Hm? Yes, Len?"

"Luka, is… Is this seriously happening right now?"

"Len, I wouldn't be wasting minutes just to call you up today and lie. And she's probably already on her way there, so you may want to hurry and get going."

"…I…"

"Oh, speaking of wasting minutes, they'll be overcharging me if I go on with much more. I think I covered everything; she loves you, she wants you, she's waiting for you now…"

The seconds started ticking inside of Len's head. "Uh…"

"Oh, yes; I still need to wish you good luck. …Good luck!" And with that, her phone call was up with him.

Len dropped his arm to put his phone away, and bent down to pick up his bag. He stared at the ground for a few seconds as he slowly began to grasp what had just happened and what was said to him.

By the time his mind caught up to him, he was already in the car.


	18. Chapter 17: Climax

One more chapter to go; it's been, like, half of a year, but there's only one more chapter left and we're done.

For now, anyway. I wasn't thinking about doing My Missed Chance until the very last chapter of Big Brother, Little Sister, anyway, so who knows. In any case, you won't be hearing from Len/Neru again for a while. I wouldn't place any bets on another story ark. But I guess that's pretty much what I said before, isn't it?

Whether we end it here or not, enjoy the final steps of My Missed Chance. Expect the story's closing in the next week.

**My Missed Chance – Chapter Seventeen**

This was a new experience for Len. In the past, when he had felt he needed to be somewhere as quickly as possible, he would have pushed his car to its natural limits in whatever was the vague direction of where he needed to go, likely with complete disregard for safety, speed, or the laws that govern them. He may have ended up missing the turn he needed to go on to get there, swing around in a u-turn and hit a passing car in the process causing him to miss whatever it was he was in such a rush to get to in the first place. This is what may have possibly happened if he were driving the way he usually does- it's not a little-known fact; Len's driving _is_ a bit on the edge of things. But today Len was not driving in his usual way. He wasn't recklessly flying around the road to pass cars in lanes ahead of him. He wasn't rushing himself and he wasn't making sudden route changes because even though he knew where he was going he didn't actually want to be there.

Oh yes. Where he was going today was definitely a place he wanted to be. Badly.

He was driving slowly- for him- with both hands on the wheel's ten and two o' clock positions and, in a first that would raise eyebrows across a nation, had buckled himself into his car seat. He didn't want _today_ to be the day of all days when he crashed and died in an accident. Tomorrow, maybe. Yesterday would have been better, too. But not today. Today, he had somewhere to be. Somewhere important. And he'd hate to be late to something this important because he died.

He made the turn onto the main street of Neru's neighborhood. He knew the place well enough at this point. He wouldn't really be able to get anywhere other than Neru's house from the entrance, but he felt he'd be able to find his way out if he were anywhere other than the curb on the street side of Neru's front yard. Now, to get where he was going, he'd have to pass by Neru's house on the way, probably. Luka told him she was already up there waiting for him. Or that she might be. Whichever, it didn't matter. If she was already up there, then that's that. If she wasn't, well, she didn't have a car to take her so she _would_ be walking. Len didn't know for sure, but he could guess that it was a long walk on foot. She'd probably be half-way up there now, if she wasn't already. Probably. Certainly.

Rushing frantically around her room with a hair braid in one hand and her undone pigtail in the other, Neru finished getting her hair into place as she opened her closet door to grab a jacket. She didn't have any time to waste- as it was, she barely had any time at all. Quickly, she grabbed a light-weight orange jacket and started towards leaving her room. A mirror on the wall stopped her when she saw her reflection in it. Did… Did she look okay? She flipped her hair back. Maybe she could look better, she wanted to make sure she looked good. Maybe she should…

She looked at her watch. It'd been a few minutes since Luka called. She didn't have time; she had to go. She'd been standing in front of the mirror for ten seconds already, anyway; how she looked would have to do, no more time. Leaving her room, she darted down her stairs and left out her front door.

At about this same time, Len was starting to realize that he wasn't as sure about where he was going as he had thought he was. He had thought for sure he knew where he was going before, but that was until he actually had to start looking. Now that he was in the area, eyes fixed on the roadsides for turns up to the hilly section he was headed towards, he discovered what it was like to be completely and totally unable to figure out where to go. He wasn't lost. Yet. But he was almost going in circles looking for what he knew had to be here somewhere- he could see the road turning up from somewhere down where he was and leading up to the parking lot, he could _see_ it leading up there. The only thing was that he couldn't see how to get to it from where he was.

He wasn't exactly running ten minutes late, but he was still getting nervous. Again. Though this time it was because he was worried for no reason that he would be too late to catch her; that she would just leave or something if he wasn't up there immediately. Though he knew this fear wasn't really justified, he still didn't want to take too long. He _could_, technically, if he absolutely had to, just park in Neru's driveway and hoof it up the hillside. But he'd prefer if he didn't have to go that far. Not that he wouldn't, at this point. If it were any other day and if he were in any other rational-thinking mood right now- and if it were anyone else- there's no way he would have thought about getting there on foot. But today? And for Neru? Yeah, he'd probably walk up the side of that thing.

While Len was mentally drafting up a back-up plan for walking, Neru was reaching the lookout point he was having such a hard time finding the way to. If he ever told her how he couldn't find the way, later, she wouldn't really understand how. It was pretty easy to find, she thought. She could almost see the way up from a window in her house; it wasn't far. But she wasn't thinking that maybe despite its simplicity to her he might be driving in circles. She was mostly worried that she was taking too long and Len was already up there- that she had no time to prepare. When she saw that the lot was empty, though, instead of a sigh of relief she started to worry that she had taken _way_ too long and he'd left. After that, she started thinking that he hadn't come yet and she still had some time- and then began using that time to freak out a bit more than she'd like to admit. Less of a real freak-out and more of a blush while she was alone, Neru wasn't still, regardless. She had no real ideas about what she was going to say. And whenever her mind crossed over the subject, her face turned red and she started to pace. She was waiting for him, but she was also trying to completely clear the reasons for her being there from her mind. So, instead of thinking up ways to confess her love to him face-to-face, she kept her mind on how cold it was up here.

And it _was_ pretty cold up here.

Len thanked whatever angel was his guardian when he finally found a road leading up, on his final pass on the road Neru's house was on. The way was a break in the tree line with a literal hair of enough room to fit his car through, and the pavement was covered almost entirely with dirt at the beginning, clearing up as it went. There were no signs pointing it out and if he ever had to describe it to someone he would start with the obvious lack of maintenance. Footprints and tire tracks were embedded into the dirt layered over the asphalt for a while into it, and it looked almost like the beginning of a nature trail, or something, to him. But when he looked further down it he saw that, when the dirt cleared, this was what he was looking for; he turned onto the narrow entryway and avoided branches until it opened to a standard road's size, and rose on a steady incline from there. Now only seconds away from turning onto the top, and only seconds away from possibly meeting Neru up there, Len turned his attention away from the present and on to other, less nerve-wracking things, trying- and only very barely succeeding- to not completely lose his mind over it all.

He was slightly starting to lose his cool again. Because apparently Neru made him crazy like that. He didn't mind.

As Len made the drive up Neru stopped her pacing at the faintest sound of a car approaching. And, proving that focusing on the cold was a waste of time that only accomplished making her colder, she properly proceeded to turn around and jump behind a bush.

Crouching down low, she waited. The sound of a car's approach grew louder, and Neru's thoughts were blank. Peeking out from behind the leaves, she saw it; Len's car turning around the corner and gliding up along the road.

She couldn't believe it; there he was. He showed up for her.

For her.

Neru crouched down lower, her face flaming red.

The car reached the top. And time slowed down for Neru, still out of view. Stopping in one of the many, leaf-covered parking spots, the sound of the car's engine running slowly grounded to a low hum.

Len took out the keys, opened the door, and stepped out. Slowly. Looking around with a nervous swivel of his head, he sighed with a mix of relief and anticipation when he saw no one standing there waiting for him. He didn't go right to thinking she wasn't _going_ to be there, just that, if anything, she wasn't there just yet. He was early even after all of his worrying, apparently.

Or late. But he decided not to focus on that little possibility.

He stood for a few more seconds. A minute, maybe. E felt the cool breeze of air that seemed to continuously flow on elevated land and let his mind, for the first, real time, clear. In the bushes some distance away, Neru did the same. In her own way. Sort of. Len turned towards and walked at the wooden fence that lined the edge of the lot, overlooking from miles away the center of the city with a scenic view he had to admit was breathtaking. It was getting darker. Not night, not yet, but still dark enough that the lights of buildings so far away were clear and distinct on their sides. Soon, maybe, the sun would set completely down. Len stood there, now leaning on the fence in between two posted binoculars you would put a quarter into to operate. He thought that maybe this was a popular place to go to, once. But with how it looked today, he doubted that anyone really came up here anymore. If he had hit the side of either of the binoculars hard enough, he would hear a fair amount of quarters left inside; it had been officially abandoned up here by its owners long before people had stopped coming, and no one had ever checked the insides of the machines before leaving for any last scraps of money they had gotten from them. But Len didn't check to see that little detail; he was focusing on the scenery. He guesses the sun was a little under two hours from fully setting below the horizon. Sunlight gleamed off of the tops of buildings tall enough and metal enough to be hit by it at its low point in the sky. It was getting darker, yes, but the sky for right now was tinted an orange hue. Around where the sun was, Len stared off in that direction, just below where it was. It felt… Somehow, familiar to Len, for lack of a better word. Though he wasn't sure why. He'd never been up here before, as much as he regretted that now, and he'd never really looked at to appreciate a sunset before. He wondered if Neru had come up here often before. If things worked out well, he'd probably want to come back up here with her. It'd be too awkward to come up without her, if things went south. Maybe clean it up a little bit; or maybe just enjoy it and its view for how it was, whichever. He'd like that. Yeah, he'd like that a lot.

Whenever he took a breath, he could taste the cold air in his mouth and feel it in his lungs. Whenever he breathed out, he could see the faintest white puff of a cloud from the cold. He was outwardly silent. Blushing from behind her hiding spot, so was Neru, deadly so. Len was trying not to think anymore, at all. He would let whatever was about to happen, happen. Neru was trying to get herself to think straight. And, in a way, she succeeded. Partially. There he was, she was thinking, waiting. Right there.

For her.

Never before nor never since would Neru have ever walked so silently. When she stood, thoughts in a flurry, not a twig snapped in half and not a leaf moved out of place as she made her way out from behind the bush. Her shoes on the pavement made no sound as she walked. Her hand, as she approached step by step at a crawling pace, rested tightly clutched over her heart. It was beating. Quickly. Her face lit up with a red so vivid it challenged the light of the sun she was facing. Len took a step back from the fence, and Neru froze in place from fear. But he didn't turn around, still not aware of how close the girl he was waiting for was. He didn't know, and she couldn't believe it. Every day almost, for the past two years, Neru had rode in cars the seat over from him, walked in hallways at an arm's length from him, and every time she was fine; composed, calm, happy. She was still happy now, for sure. But she was not very calm as she resumed her steady steps, she was not very composed as the hand over her heart began to shake, and she was slowly losing control of herself as her mind went blank and her body took over for her. She could barely stand from it all, let alone walk. But she did.

Her steps were even slowly than before, but within seconds, anyway, she was right behind him. Any more steps would put her so insanely close that they'd be able to hear each other breathe.

Whether he had heard her at this point or not, Len would never say. And if Neru had actually lost the ability to stand upright or if she was pretending, she would never tell, either.

Neru collapsed onto him, latching her arms tightly around Len's body from his back.

A few seconds later, shocked, he managed to turn around as she slipped slowly off and went to her knees. No longer attached with a hug, Neru's face turned redder than rose pedals as she looked up at his to make eye contact. Len blushed back accordingly as he lowered himself down next to her. There weren't many times when Neru had seen Len blush. She couldn't remember any time when he really did. Especially not in front of her. Because of her. Maybe she had forgotten all of the other times, and this was actually something he did quite often every day. But even if she did forget every other time, before and after this one, she would remember today. Clearly.

He looked so cute like that. Surprised. Embarrassed. She wanted to kiss him. Badly. But she couldn't bring herself to move. Even crouched down at eyelevel, Len was still a little bit taller than her. They looked at each other, silently her eyes wide and his mouth just a little bit open. Neru wanted desperately to move, but couldn't.

Len didn't have this problem.

The wind stopped blowing the seconds before it had happened. No sounds were made anywhere for at least one mile. In an instant it seemed to have started, when he moved. But for an eternity it seemed to have lasted, when they touched.

Len leaned forward, slowly into Neru's waiting lips, and kissed her. And she, now finally with the strength to move again, kissed back.

Within seconds, something inside them both erupted. A simmer at first, then a passion that boiled with pure fury after. Their eyes closed for their kiss, but they opened shortly afterward for what was happening then and there. At this point, neither one of them would have a rational thought for a fair bit of time. They grabbed each other's hands and rushed to their feet to get to Len's car. In unison, they had the same intention, and as close to what could be counted as wordless consent was given by the both of them. Len fumbled to unlock his car's back doors, and the two of them jumped inside, Neru closing it behind them. Sunlight tinted with glare the outside of the windows, and the two of them went at each other.

Len had nobody waiting for him at home and Neru had the luxury of parents who worked late. Which was good. Because for the next two hours neither one would emerge from Len's car.

Finally still, the two of them, half-dressed and lying on his backseat next to each other, panted breathlessly. For the first coherent thought put into words from wither of them that evening, Neru, looking over from the ceiling of his car at Len with her fingers playing with his hair, sighed with content and said, "Wow."

Len couldn't have put it into words better himself had he tried. "Wow."


	19. Chapter 18: After, Forever

'Next week' from now on means 'two days from now.' For future reference, you know; until it takes me a month for a single chapter again. Good times, those. Good times.

Also, we're finished. This time for real, maybe. Or maybe not. We'll wait and see. Who knows.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Hope you enjoyed it.

**My Missed Chance – Chapter Eighteen**

The next day of school was about as normal it could have been expected to be. Len woke up early enough to be ready for Neru's call asking him for a ride, and Neru woke up late enough to miss her bus and call him. Len drove to school with her as he nearly always did, and the two of them talked through the morning as they had most mornings before then and almost every morning after. Though this time Len had taken to holding her hand along the way; something that gave them roughly an even mix of wide-eyed stares and curious glances from people they passed. A few had smirks on their faces. But only a few. Rumors started early that day, and almost every single one of them, pleasantly so or otherwise, was at least partially true. And even though he didn't like rumors all that much, Len didn't want to make a habit of shooting down rumors that were at least on the right track. He'd let these fester a bit. Maybe let them last. Maybe even set them straight. Yes, he'd do that; he didn't care much for gossipers, anyway. He much preferred people knowing things for sure. He felt he knew at least a few others who felt the same way about that.

Neru was probably one of them. She gripped his hand tighter when they held went from place to place, and since they had some extra time that morning, one of the first places they went to was Luka Megurine's classroom. She didn't want to call her last night, and Neru always did like it better when she could tell people good news in person. So she decided to tag along with Len to see her. She was a bit shy about this sort of thing before now. But she didn't have as much of a reason to be today. And besides, she wasn't talking about it alone.

When the two of them reached her door, they opened it expecting to see Luka either busily working behind her desk or doing absolutely nothing behind her desk- _maybe_ messing with her phone, if anything. But when they looked inside, they saw that Luka was not actually there- in her place, a tall and serious-looking man, just was formally dressed as Luka typically was but with a clearly less joyful demeanor, was writing up mathematics on the whiteboard. He had, in stark contrast Len and Neru felt with his clothes and workings, long purple hair. He wore glasses, as Luka sometimes would, but the two of them had the impression that this man actually needed them to see. He _looked_ young, but some people just had bad eyes.

He stopped his writing on the board and looked at them. "Yes?" he asked in a deep tone.

"Um…" Neru started. "Is Luka here today, sir?"

"…Luka?" He raised an eyebrow. "If you are referring to Miss Megurine, then no, she is absent for the day, having called in sick. I am her replacement, Mr. Kamui." He adjusted his glasses to be closer to his eyes. "I assume you are students of hers? Is whatever you needed something I could help with?"

Neru responded right away with her other hand going to the back of her head. "No, no, no, I don't think so, we, uh, just wanted to tell her something. But, uh, I guess it can wait; it's not important." Her face was a little red and she put on a smile. Kamui shrugged.

"I can leave her a note if it's urgent," he said. "Are you certain that it's-"

"That won't be necessary!" Neru rushed an answer out. "But, uh, thank you anyway, we appreciate it."

"Mm…" He looked at the clock on the wall. "There're still several minutes before you need to be here, you know; several minutes I meant to use to prepare for class. If that was all…" He motioned with a slow sweeping hand gesture at the door.

"Oh, of course sir." Neru said, "We'll get right out of our way. Sorry."

The two of them stepped out of the doorway and closed it tightly. They didn't say anything to each other right away, but Len was clearing holding back a smile. Neru looked at him and asked, "What's so funny?"

He chuckled a bit and smirked. "You're so cute when you're put on the spot like that." They kept walking down the hall by each other's sides. "I thought it was… Entertaining, that's all."

"Oh… Oh yeah?" When they rounded a corner, they were in a larger foyer room with a fair amount of other students still walking around in it- many of them being the ones who saw them holding hands that morning. They still were, and people were still surprised about it. A few whispers went by unnoticed by the two of them. "Well, how would you like to be put in a position like that?" she said, voice not very serious about it. "Wouldn't be all that cute then, would it, eh?"

"I wouldn't worry about that sort of thing," Len said, free hand moving to rest in his pocket. "I'm far, _far_ too safe from being in that sort of situation."

"You think so?" She said, both of them still walking.

"I don't get nervous."

"You're sure about that?"

"Yeah. Why?" he asked. "You disagree?"

"A little bit." She leaned over and placed her hand on his face, turning it towards hers, and kissed him. The two of them stopped in their tracks, in the middle of all of the people in the room, and let it last for several seconds to their friends and others' glances. There were a few giggles from both people passing by and from Neru when she took her lips off of his and she saw just how red his face was. He was silent, eyes fully open. She smiled, her eye lids halfway down. "Nervous or embarrassed now, Mr. Smooth?"

Len waited a few seconds, then said, "Neither," before he moved in and kissed her back.

The two of them smiled and laughed lightly, held hands even tighter than they were before, and went about their day, together, as they should've- they both thought in retrospect- all along.


End file.
